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SECRET REVEALED 



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JUNIUS'S LETTERS 



BY 



JAMES FALCONAR, ESQ. JUN. 



L'arae n'a point de secret que la conduite ne reVele.— Fr. Pro v. 











LONDON: 

HOLDSWORTH AND BALL, 

st. paul's churchyard. 

1830. 






^ -w 



G. WOODFALL, angel court, skinner street, london. 



TO 

THE HON. WILLIAM DUNCOMBE, M,P. 

TOR YORKSHIRE, 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES, 

WITH HIS PERMISSION, 
ARE 
MOST RESPECTFULLY 

INSCRIBED 

BY HIS OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, 

THE AUTHOR, 



INTRODUCTION 



WRAY-ANA. 



So intimately blended are the memoirs of 
Wray, necessarily with the proofs of his being 
the author of Junius's Letters, that without a 
general acquaintance with the one, the force of 
the other would be but imperfectly appreciated 
and understood. Exclusively, therefore, of our 
natural curiosity to be acquainted with the his- 
tory of an individual whose presumed w T orks 
have excited an extraordinary interest in the 
world, the expediency, if not the necessity, of 
prefixing to this publication some short account 
of Mr. Wray's life, must be obvious. But as an 
account previously written by a person appa- 
rently disinterested, as regards the object of the 
present Writer, must also obviously be more 
satisfactory than one executed by himself for the 
occasion, the following reduced outline taken 
from that pleasing biographical tatler Mr. Jus- 



11 



tice Hardinge a , is, in consequence, submitted 
to the reader's consideration : — 

Daniel Wray, the son of Sir Daniel Wray, 
was born upon the 28th of November, 1701, in 
the parish of St. Botolph, Aldersgate. The 
father was a London citizen, who resided in 
Little Britain 5 ; made a very considerable for- 
tune in trade, and purchased an estate in Essex, 
near Ingatestone, which the son possessed after 
him. 

For that county Sir Daniel Wray was high 
sheriff, and was knighted March 24th, 1707-8, 
on presenting an address to Queen Anne on 
the French attempt to invade these realms, in 
support of a Catholic pretender to the throne. 

Of Mr. Wray no trace exists before his 
thirteenth year, when it is ascertained he be- 
came a pupil at the Charter House. From 



a Mr. Hardinge's Wray-ana were first published in the 
"Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth 
Century/' by the late John Nichols, F.S.A., to whose 
memory (would that it were not so !) the Writer takes this 
opportunity of acknowledging his obligations for the many 
hours of enjoyment, blessed with information, reaped from 
the labours of that truly worthy man. 

b The birth-place also of Mr. H. S. Woodfall, the re- 
spectable Printer of the Advertizer, in which the letters of 
Junius were originally published. 



Ill 

thence he was removed, in 1?18, to Queen's 
College, in the University of Cambridge, and 
was there entered as a Fellow Commoner, a cir- 
cumstance bespeaking the affluence of his 
father's means, and the liberality of his mind* 
After taking his bachelor's degree in 1722, 
being then in the possession of an ample fortune 
by the death of his father, he made the tour of 
Italy, accompanied by Lord Morton a and Mr. 
King 5 , for which he was eminently qualified, 
having a critical and familiar acquaintance with 
the Italian and French languages, and a know- 
ledge of Spanish. During this tour it is sup- 
posed he acquired that taste for the relics of 
ancient vertu, for which he was afterwards re- 
markable. 

How long Mr. Wray remained abroad be- 
tween 1722 and 1728, is unknown, except by 

1 John Douglas, Earl of Morton, Knight of the Thistle. 
He was a most profound scholar in the book of the world, as 
well as old manuscripts and in printed volumes. The in- 
timacy and friendship between him and Wray continued to 
his death. He loved a jest, like his friend. One of his 
witticisms we cannot forbear repeating : — Conversing on the 
subject of episcopacy, he observed, it was of Greek origin as 
a word, and a tiling; that it meant looking out with a keen 
eye from one eminence to another. 

b The son of Lord Chancellor King, and the inheritor of 
his title. 

B 2 



IV 

the fact that a cast in bronze 3 , by Pozzo, was 
taken of his profile, in 17^6, at Rome. It had 
this inscription upon the reverse : 

" Nil actum reputans, si quid superesset agendum." 

That line was a portrait of his character. With 
all his vivacity of manner, he was an absolute 
prodigy of diligence : he could not leave a sub- 
ject before he had made himself a complete 
and profound master of it. 

After his return from his travels, he became 
a Master of Arts in 1728, and so distinguished 
by philosophical attainments that he was chosen 
a Fellow of the Royal Society, in March 1728-9. 
He resided, however, generally at Cambridge, 
tjiough emigrating occasionally to London, till 
1739 or 1740, in which latter year (January 
1740-1) he was elected Fellow of the Anti- 
quaries b 9 and was more habitually a resident in 
town. 

a An impression from this cast (see a lithograph of the ob- 
verse in the title-page) is hung in the library of the Charter 
House ; as is also a copy of his portrait from the original at 
Queen's College, Cambridge, a chef d'ceuvre, by Sir Na- 
thaniel Holland, better known, as an artist, by the name of 
Dance. 

b He was subsequently elected Vice President, and was, 
it is said, instrumental in its incorporation by royal charter. 



Another prominent circumstance in Mr. 
Wray's literary career is, that he was appointed 
one of the elected trustees of the British Museum 
on its first establishment, a distinguished honour 
then, as well as in later periods. 

At what period the intimacy between Mr. 
Wray and the Yorke family commenced, is un- 
certain. With one member, however, of it, 
Mr. Yorke, afterwards the 2d Earl of Hard- 
wicke, if the friendship between him and Wray 
did not begin, it certainly existed in the year of 
the former's matriculation (1737) at Bene't Col- 
lege, in the University of Cambridge, and from 
that time it subsisted uninterruptedly, without 
even a shade or shadow of turning, till the 
death of the latter, nearly half a century. They 
were not only assimilated in their zeal for litera- 
ture in general, and for history in particular, 
but in a more congenial passion, for curious 
books and manuscripts j Mr. Wray was more 
intent upon the first, and Mr. Yorke upon the 
last 

A considerable number of Mr. Wray's letters* 

a Several specimens are given in the Appendix to the 
present Work, and many extracts from others in the course 
of it ; but the Reader is referred to Mr. Hardinge's Wray-ana 
for the remainder. 



VI 



to his illustrious friend, were not many years 
ago in the hands of the present Eari of Hard- 
wicke, commencing with the year 1740, and 
closing in 1780. From the extracts given by 
Mr. Hardinge, they appear, as he justly ob- 
serves, models of epistolary eloquence : wit and 
learning, taste and good sense, command his 
pen by turns. There is a kind of chastened 
familiarity in them, which gives them a peculiar 
charm. He is never oppressed by the differ- 
ence of rank, or by the deep and moral sense 
of obligations, on the one hand, or guilty of 
unbecoming liberties on the other 5 though 
with an attached and zealous admirer of his 
talents and virtues, but superior in rank, and 
at an early period of their friendship his patron. 
In a little time after the memorable acquaint- 
ance and friendship took place between Mr. 
Yorke and Mr. Wray, the former, and his 
brother Charles, wrote a very ingenious and 
most classical work called the " Athenian Let- 
ters," 9 to which their friends contributed, 

a First printed for the private use of a limited number of 
friends, in four volumes 8vo., 1741 and 1743. In 1781 they 
were again printed in 4to., (100 copies only) but not published. 
An edition having been afterwards surreptitiously printed in 
Ireland, the present Lord Hardwicke, in 1810, published them 
in two handsome 4to. volumes for general circulation. Wrav's 



Vll 

among whom Mr. Wray was a principal co- 
adjutor, six letters being written by himself 
alone, and a seventh conjointly with Mr. Yorke; 
besides superintending the revision and cor- 
rection of the whole of those from the pens of 
both the Yorkes. These letters, for the Attic 
purity and finished elegance of the style, may 
vie with any similar productions in the English 
language, and afford the best existing* proof, 
independent of his private letters, of Wray's 
powers of composition. 

The friendship between Mr. Yorke and Wray 
was not " but a name," it extended itself to 
acts ; most beneficially so, in the appointment 
in 1745 by the former, as Teller of the Ex- 
chequer, of the latter, to be his Deputy Teller ; 
(the official duties of which he continued to 
execute till 1782.) Here was a new theatre of 
his talents ; and one should little have con- 
ceived that a man of brilliant wit, of lively 
manners, a philosopher, a deep scholar, and a 
man of science, would have made a figure in 

copy of the original edition (the four volumes bound in two) 
was, by a codicil to his will, bequeathed to his coadjutor and 
friend Mr. Yorke, then Lord Hardwicke. 

a In the codicil alluded to in the preceding note, Mr. 
Wray strictly orders all his letters, verses, &c, to be burnt. 



Vlll 

that niche. But it is agreed by all who were 
conversant with him there, that his order, his 
method and rule, his luminous precision, his 
acute memory, his diligence, his readiness, tem- 
per, command of the accounts, in a word, his 
possession of all that was required of him, were 
unexampled. His letter of thanks to his patron 
on his appointment, has been deemed a perfect 
model of its kind, and that kind one of the 
best : it is manly and affectionate, gracefully 
polished and playfully natural, and is therefore 
given, with other letters, as a pleasing illustra- 
tion of his epistolary style in the Appendix, to 
which the reader is referred. 

Mr. Wray's appointment as Deputy Teller 
did not preclude his being an occasional resi- 
dent at Queen's College, Cambridge ; upon the 
boards of which he kept his name to the day of 
his death. 

While there, in 1748, he took a conspicuous 
part upon a singular and ludicrous occurrence : 
— Mr. Burrell, the father of Lord Gwydir, then 
a young man, presented to the University a 
statue, which he called, and probably thought, 
a figure of Queen Anne. The University was 
then, as it has too often been, a scene of party, 
which had no business there. The Whigs and 



IX 



the Tories were in a political flame ; and a civil 
war took up any feather as the demand upon it, 
or cri de guerre. The Tories were pleased with 
a high church queen, and placed her, by an 
irregular act of power, in the Senate House. 
Mr. Wray had the reputation of discovering 
that it was no Queen Anne, but a figure of 
Glory, in which character it had stood at Canons, 
near the Duke of Marlborough's figure, in 
honour of his military victories. Being of the 
Whig faction, Mr. Wray exerted himself to put 
a disgrace upon this personage ; detected the 
inaccuracy of the title, and was, if not the 
leading advocate, a confederate in a party for 
the expulsion of the figure. His opposition, 
however, failed. 

On this occasion Mr. Nicholas Hardinge a , a 
friend and contemporary of Wray's at college, 
and the father of his biographer, wrote "a 
Poetical Dialogue between a Stranger and the 
Beadle in the Senate House of Cambridge." 
In it Wray's portrait is drawn with a peculiar 



a Chief Clerk to the House of Commons,, afterwards joint 
Secretary of the Treasury with James West, Esq. He 
married Jane, second daughter of Sir John Pratt, Chief 
Justice of the King's Bench, and sister to the late Lord 
Camden. 



X 

delicacy of humour ; for it is a ridicule upon 
his manner, accompanied by a compliment to 
his patriotism and philosophy. 

" Strang. Approv'd the senate this transfiguration, 
Or licens'd by decree the consecration ? 
Beadle. Not by decree ; but when malignant Wray, 
Eager in hope, impatient of delay, 
A dapper, pert, loquacious elf, 
More active for the public than himself, 
Ran to and fro with anxious looks, and prated, 
And mov'd she might from hence be soon translated, 
Dissenting from their friends, a wise majority 
Supported us, and her, by their authority : 
And who shall now remove her from the scene, 
Or dare to drive her from the Muses ? 
Strang. Keene."* 

In spite however of Keene also, and of Har- 
dinge's prophecy, Glory kept her seat, and was 
honoured by a final decree. 

At Cambridge too, on another but previous 
occasion, not even so much as alluded to in 
the Memoirs by Hardinge, Mr. Wray was very 
actively intent upon defeating the manoeuvres 
of a presumed Charlatan to trick himself into 
University honours. This fact is gleaned from 
a letter now remaining in the British Museum, 
addressed from Queen's College to his friend Dr. 

a Vice Chancellor ; afterwards successively Bishop of 
Chester and of Ely, an esteemed friend of Wray's. 



XI 



Birch, and is so characteristic, that to suppress 
it, the portrait would be defective. 

" DEAR BIRCH, Nov - 23d - J7tt 

" Some time in the end of summer, your old 
friend Carte was at Sir John Sutton's, in this 
neighbourhood, from whence he made a learned 
excursion or two hither, and studied from morn- 
ing to night in Trinity Library. This, as was 
probably intended, has made his name known 
here : his diligence and application have been 
puffed ; and his history of the D. of Ormond 
has been set above Lord Clarendon's. All this 
looks like an introduction to some such appli- 
cation here, as he has made to other public 
bodies ; and armed with his success at Guild- 
hall and Oxford, will he have any scruples about 
appearing in our senate ? Now, though I by 
no means suspect our University will do so silly 
a thing, as that doting fool her sister has \ yet 
in case any attempt should be made, I would 
have people here apprised of the qualifications 
and character of this mighty historian, the 
surest way in the world to disappoint him. 
With these no man has the honour of so inti- 
mate an acquaintance as yourself, and herein 
we must beg your kind assistance ; 'scribere te 
notis, tibi nos accredere par est.' Whiggism tra« 



XII 

duced, history prostituted, demand that you in- 
form us, and that we attend to you. Be there- 
fore as full as your affairs will permit, in this 
cronique scandaleux (which you know has been 
the title of a true history) and talk not of my 
having made this request to you \ it will be bet- 
ter for many reasons. I will not importune 
you about other news ; but your weekly pacquet 
to Wrest is suspended for the winter ; and the 
tithe of that w r ould make me happy. Besides, 
we have absolutely no information ; and Charles 
Yorke would not write, even about the division 
in the cabinet : I leave him to the stings of his 
own conscience.' 5 

The next memorable event in the life of Wray 
was his marriage. He was 57 years of age when 
he became united to Mrs. Wray. She was the 
daughter of Mr. Darrell, a neighbour at Rich- 
mond, a gentleman who lived in respectable pri- 
vacy 3 , and was affluent, but having two sons 5 
and another daughter, could make this match 

a From a letter of Wray's to Lord Hardwicke, 11 April, 
1760, it appears Mr. Darrell moved in the first circles. Of 
the company assembled at his father-in-law's on the preceding 
evening, he says, " the meanest Jigure was an Esquire of the 
Bath" 

b One of the sons, Robert Darrell, was Sub-Governor of 
the South Sea House. 



XU1 



no object as an acquisition to Mr. Wray's for- 
tune. She was S3, and though not handsome, 
very agreeable in her countenance ; her manners 
were gracefully gentle and pleasing ; she had a 
temper of gold, a sound and well informed un- 
derstanding, a high sense of honour, and a love 
to her husband, which endeared her to all his 
friends. She had a most amusing talent, that of 
drawing profiles and figures a , cutting them out 
in paper, and putting them together in what 
might be called conversation pictures, giving 
them the semblance of life. 

With Mr. Wray's change of condition, his 
habits became changed ; parsimony gave place 
to its opposite. Adieu to lodgings. He took a 
handsome house in town, first in King's Street, 
Covent Garden, but afterwards in Dean Street, 
Soho, and another at Richmond. He who be- 
fore indulged no apparent expense of show, 
luxury, or comfort, beyond that of necessaries, 
though rich, now became distinguished for hos- 
pitality, both in town and in the country ; a 
more hospitable reception could not be wished, 
or imagined, than his numerous but well-chosen 

a A copy of a profile figure of Mr. Wray, by his wife, is 
given in Nichol's "Illustrations", in which he is represented 
wearing a bag and queue, resting on a walking cane. 



XIV 



friends could ensure under his roof. It added 
that highest of luxuries, the feast of reason ; — 
a manner playful, but a mind correct and ster- 
ling in virtue, and wisdom. Perhaps, like the 
ant, he made provision for the winter of life, 
and calculated the parsimony of the old bache- 
lor as a nest egg for the liberality of the mar- 
ried man. 

In town he assembled men of learning and 
sense at his parties, and did the honours, like 
Sir Joshua Reynolds, with a most engaging 
courtesy. But he never suffered his passion for 
genius to supersede the exclusive passport into 
his threshold of minds well disposed and well 
disciplined. 

Mr. Wray survived his marriage 25 years. 
He died on the 29th of December 1783, and 
was buried in his family's private vault in St 
Botolph's Church in Aldersgate, — the place of 
his birth. 

Mr. Wray is characterised as being passion- 
ately fond of literature— as a man of bright 
parts and of lively manners, (more juvenile than 
his age,) animated by incessant habits of dili- 
gence, and by a thirst of knowledge insatiable — 
as an acute and luminous critic, a deep scholar, 
and a laughing philosopher. 



XV 

" In divinity too", writes one of his friends % 
" I received more information from him* though 
a layman, than from any of the clergy who ever 
came in my way." 

He occasionally also amused himself and his 
friends by jeux d'esprit, in satirical wit, and 
though it does not appear Mr. Wray frequently 
offered his love to the Muses, what is extant 5 
prove that he wrote vers de societe with ele- 
gance, facility, and poetical spirit. 

" His memory too was incredible, so that he 
had a kind of portable treasure at hand, upon 
which his drafts were sure to be answered, and 
he was never at a loss for a theme of instruction, 
or of entertainment." 

a The Rev. Mr. Wollaston, of Chiselhurst, son of Mr. Wol- 
laston, of Charter House Square,, whose father wrote the 
' ' Treatise on the Religion of Nature." 

b See post, Appendix, and also Wray's life by Hardinge. 
The cause of so few of his productions remaining, and those 
being only in private hands, is accounted for in the follow- 
ing extract from the codicil to his will: "In the drawers 
of my library table are many manuscripts in my own hand, and 
some in other hands, letters, verses, and various collections ; 
and in my iron chest, and in the drawers abovesaid, several 
memorandum books : all these I strictly order to be burned; 
and in general all my papers, except those relating to my 
estates, and my accounts, which my executors will separate 
and take care of." The executors were his wife and brother- 
in-law, Robert Darrell. 



XVI 

As a finish to the portrait of Wray, the follow- 
ing sonnet, addressed to him by his friend Mr. 
Edwards a , is deserving of notice. 

" Wray, whose dear friendship in the dawning years 
Of undesigning childhood first began 
Through youth's gay morn with even tenor ran, 

My noon conducted, and my evening cheers, 

Rightly dost thou, in whom combind appears 
Whate'er for public life completes the man, 
With native zeal strike out a larger plan, 

No useless friend of senators and peers : 
The talents moderate, and small estate, 
Fit for retirement's unambitious shade. 

Nor envy I who near approach the throne, 
But joyful see thee mingle with the great, 

And praise thy lot, contented with my own." 

Mr. Wray, by his will, among other legacies, 
bequeathed to his servant, Thomas Wing, a for- 
tune of ££3000, no inconsiderable sum at that 
time, for whom also he provided, in his lifetime, 
a clerk's place in his Majesty's Receipt of the 
Exchequer. 

The residue of his property, after the death of 
his widow, he devised to her sister's children. — 
He had not one relation of his own, 

" Stat Nominis Umbra." 

a Author of the Canons of Criticism. The antagonist of 
Warburton, and one of the keenest satirists of his day. 



THE 

SECRET KEVEALED, 



PART I. 



A long line of literary and political characters, 
from Hugh Macauley Boyd down to Lord George 
Sackville, the alpha and omega, have been pre- 
sented to the public as Junius, and throughout 
some faint likeness is apparent. Resemblance, 
however, is not identity, it is the statue without 
the Promethean fire ; the image of Jove without 
his divine attributes. 

Obscured by the galaxy of luminaries that 
have been put forth as claimants of the honours 
of Junius, the pretensions of Daniel Wray, 
Esquire, Deputy Teller of his Majesty's Exche- 
quer, under Philip, the second Earl of Hard- 
wicke, have been entirely disregarded. It is 
therefore the object of the present publication 
to bring them into notice. The cynosure, by 
which our course will be directed, is that which 



heralded its birth, the House of Yorke ; one of 
those illustrious Whig families, whose alliance 
with the Pelhams, as a party, gave direction to 
affairs of state in the latter years of the reign of 
George II., and whose united opposition to the 
ministry of " the favourite" Lord Bute, occa- 
sioned those frequent changes in administration 
in the early years of the reign of George III. 

The first known letter of Junius appeared 
in the Public Advertizer under the signature of 
Poplicola 3 , shortly after the completion of the 
Chatham Administration. And the author very 
spiritedly inveighs against the apostasy of Lord 
Chatham, and the dictatorial manner in which his 
ministry was formed both in the appointments 
to and the exclusions from office. The great 
Whig families with whom his Lordship was pre- 
viously politically connected, he not only for- 
sook, but forgot. And those, who foreseeing 
the dissolution of the Rockingham administra- 
tion b , from its own feebleness, had refused any 
official situation, in the hope of coming into of- 
fice on the formation of another, were complete- 
ly overlooked. 

a See Misc. Letters, April 28, 1767- Woodfall's edit. 
Vol. III. 

b It lasted from July 10, 1765, to July 30, 1766. 



Among those thus circumstanced, was Philip 
the second Earl of Hardwicke, who had declined 
in the previous administration a the seals of Se- 
cretary of State, taken by Lord Chatham in 
forming his own. The neglect, the sleight thus 
offered to the illustrious Whig families, and to 
the House of Yorke in particular, for whom no 
offices were reserved, and those they before held 
taken away b , first excited that spark of indig- 
nation, which, after circumstances adding fuel 
to the fire, caused it to burst into a scorching 
flame, involving in its direful progress even ma- 
jesty itself. 

Previous circumstances had, however, laid the 
foundation of it. Lord Chatham, when Mr. 
Pitt, had in his place in Parliament charged the 
loss of Minorca principally on Lord Anson, 
and at the same time insultingly declared, that 
the admiral was not fit to command a cock-boat 
on the River Thames . And in his administra- 
tion, which shortly followed, in 1 757, he moved 

a On the Duke of Grafton's resignation. 

b During Lord Rockingham's ministry the Earl of Hard- 
wicke had a seat in the cabinet, and the Hon. C. Vorke held 
the office of solicitor general. 

c Lord Chatham afterwards retracted this, 22 July 1771 > 
when he again joined the Whigs, and we then find Junius con- 
fessing he had " grown upon his esteem", 13 Aug. 177L 

C 2 



an inquiry as to the loss of that place ; which so 
highly exasperated the Duke of Newcastle and 
the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, whose son-in- 
law Lord Anson was, that they procured Pitt's 
resignation by command from the king. But at 
that period Pitt was the idol of the people, and 
to allay the public commotion his forced resign- 
ation had occasioned, they were under the hu* 
miliating necessity of offering proposals for his 
return. The conference for that purpose in the 
first place terminated abruptly, Mr. Pitt's first 
proposition being to exclude Lord Anson from 
the cabinet, and a refusal to accede to his being 
appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. And 
when he afterwards consented to the nomination 
to the latter office, it was merely ostensively ; a 
reservation of the correspondence being the sine 
qua nom Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's ap- 
pointment to a seat in the cabinet was also only 
acceded to on condition that Sir Robert Henley 
had the great seal. 

With these causes of enmity towards Lord 
Chatham, the ascription of the production of 
Junius's Letters to a friend and eleve of the 
House of Yorke, is most natural and reasonable, 
and the concatenation of events — the subjects 
of Junius's pen, as they progressively arise, — in 






which that family and its alliances were inte- 
rested, confirms the propriety of it. 

" My first prayer and my last is, may Heaven 
preserve the House of Yorke!" was the emphatic 
aspiration addressed to the Earl of Hardwicke, 
by Daniel Wray, while Junius was advocating 
its cause. And to him, and to him alone, it is 
predicated, must be inscribed the statue that has 
been already decreed in public opinion, to the 
Great Unknown — the author of the Letters of 
Junius. 

Connected with the House of Yorke, by inter- 
marriages, we find the family of Ben tin ck, Duke 
of Portland 3 . And what is remarkable, the 
cause of that nobleman is the first leading sub- 
ject of Junius's pen of a private nature, and that 
which he perseveringly advocates throughout 
his letters. It forms the entire subject of seve- 
ral letters, and is directly and indirectly ad- 
verted to in nearly sixty others. The particulars 
of that case are these. " The Portland family 
had, in consequence of a grant from King Wil- 

a Philip, the second Lord Hardwicke, married the Marchi- 
oness De Grey, the daughter of Henry De Grey, Earl and 
Duke of Kent, whose second wife was Sophia Bentinck, 
daughter of William, second Earl of Portland. And the Mar- 
chioness's aunt Anne was married to the Duke of Devonshire, 
whose sister was the then Duchess of Portland. 



liam, possessed, for 70 years, the honor of Pen- 
rith, and its appurtenances, situated in the 
county of Cumberland. The forest of Ingle- 
wood, and the manor and castle of Carlisle being 
considered as parts of this grant, were quietly 
enjoyed by the family, for several descents, un- 
der the same tenure, though not particularly 
specified. Sir James Lowther, the son-in-law of 
Lord Bute, being apprised of this omission, made 
application to the Crown for a lease of the pre- 
mises in question, and the surveyor-general of 
the crown lands, though no lawyer, took upon 
him to decide that these estates were still vested 
in the Crown. Orders were therefore issued for 
a new grant to Sir J. Lowther, in which the soc- 
age of Carlisle was rated at 501. per annum, and 
the forest of Inglewood at 14s. 4c?., though, in 
reality, of immense value, and commanding an 
extensive election influence. When the Board 
of Treasury met, the Duke of Portland presented 
a memorial to the Lords, in which he prayed to 
be heard in defence of his title. He was in- 
formed that no step should be taken to his pre- 
judice, till an impartial investigation had taken 
place. Yet, while the duke's solicitors were 
searching old surveys and court rolls, he was 
informed that the grant was actually completed; 



^^ St 



and notwithstanding the caveat entered in the 
court of Exchequer, the Chancellor, Lord North, 
affixed the seal, in pursuance of a positive order 
from the Lords of the Treasury." 3 

In disclosing the baseness of this transaction 
to the public, and in commenting upon it, Junius 
states facts and circumstances of so private a 
nature relative to the property arrangements of 
the Portland family, and the affairs of the trea- 
sury offices in the Exchequer 5 , as could only be 
acquired by one having intercourse with both, 
Wray, as deputy teller of the Earl of Hardwicke, 
was thus privileged, and, while advocating the 
cause of friendship, naturally used those warm 
terms of personal feeling, and exhibited that 
private knowledge alluded to which might rea- 
sonably be presumed to have arisen from the 
injured party alone. On this ground, the letters 
of Junius were ascribed to his Grace of Port- 
land, in a late publication ; and, though it failed 

a See Belsham's History of George the Third. The First 
Lord of the Treasury then was the Duke of Grafton. 

b Junius, in one letter, speaks of Inglewood Forest having 
been " the subject of frequent settlements"; and as then "ac- 
tually a part of the jointure of the noble duchess." (Misc. Let- 
ters, No. 13, Woodfall's edit.) In another, of the grant to 
Sir James having been surreptitiously passed through the 
treasury offices in the Exchequer. (Misc. Letters, No. 23.) 

See " Letters to a Nobleman, proving a late prime mini- 
ster to have been Junius." (Published by Longman and Co.) 



8 

in establishing that to be the precise point, it, at 
least, shewed the quarter from whence the ar- 
rows were directed. 

The legal adviser of Sir James Lowther, in 
his contest with the Duke of Portland, was Dr. 
Blackstone, the celebrated author of the Com- 
mentaries; and, of course, he incurred the cen- 
sure of Junius ; who thus speaks of him in Let- 
ter 14. 3 : " For the defence of truth, of law, and 
reason, the Doctor's book may be safely con- 
sulted; but whoever wishes to cheat a neigh- 
bour of his estate, or to rob a country of its 
rights, need make no scruple of consulting the 
Doctor himself." The Doctor was also the 
adviser of Lord Sandwich, in his contest with 
Philip, the second Earl of Hardwicke, for the 
office of high steward of Cambridge. And what 
remarkably shows that that family and its alliances 
were ever present to the mind of Junius, in his 
next letter 5 we find Lord Hardwicke, the then 
high steward, brought into contrast with the 
Duke of Grafton, the Chancellor of Cambridge; 
the scrupulous morality of the former affording 
a very strong relief to the well known profligacy 
of the latter. 

a 22nd June, 17<39. 

b Letter 15. July 8, 1769. On the subject of the Middle- 
sex election, in which the doctor again became the unfortunate 
adviser. 



" As you became minister by accident, were 
adopted without choice, trusted without confi- 
dence, and continued without favour, be assured 
that, whenever an occasion presses, you will be 
discarded without even the forms of regret. You 
will then have reason to be thankful, if you are 
permitted to retire to that seat of learning, 
which, in contemplation of the system of your 
life, the comparative purity of your manners 
with those of their high steward, and a thousand 
other recommending circumstances, has chosen 
you to encourage the growing virtue of their 
youth, and to preside over their education." 

The force, — the mortifying keen irony of this 
passage, has been lost to those, who, misled 3 by 
the notes of several editors of the Letters, have 
deemed Lord Sandwich (the co-equal of Grafton 
in profligacy, in Junius's opinion,) to be the High 
Steward in question. He was the opposing, but 
unsuccessful candidate, after a very warm con- 
test, on the election of Lord Hardwicke to that 
distinguished office \ and was also equally unsuc- 

a This has been the case with " Atticus Secundus " , the 
editor of a neat and well got up pocket edition of Junius's Let- 
ters, published by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. See also that 
only complete and truly valuable edition of the Letters, in 3 
vols. 8vo. edited by the late Dr. Mason Good. 



10 

cessful in the subsequent attempt, by proceed- 
ings in the Court of King's Bench, to set aside 
the election. This violence of opposition on the 
part of Lord Sandwich, we would here take 
occasion to remark, combined with his unfeeling 
disrespectful conduct, in publicly canvassing 
for the office previous to the vacancy, even while 
Lord Hardwicke's father, the venerable Lord 
Chancellor, who then held it, was in his last ill- 
ness, naturally engendered sentiments of ani- 
mosity against him in the bosoms of that noble- 
man and his friends \ and that, hence, is deve- 
loped the hitherto unattempted and unexplained 
cause of Junius's repeated invectives against 
Lord Sandwich. And in assuming Lord 
Hardwicke's friend Wray to be Junius, we ac- 
count for the knowledge the latter displays on 
this, and several other occasions of Cambridge 
University men and matters, of so local a nature 
as would only be adverted to by one having 
connexion with both. 

And we would here observe, that the scenes, 
as well as the dramatis personam of Junius's per- 
formances, give us no faint idea of his accus- 
tomed haunts. Lord Hardwicke had not only 
a seat at Wimple, in the neighbourhood of Cam- 
bridge, but another at Wrest, in the adjoining 



11 

county of Bedford, in the immediate vicinity of 
Woburn, the seat of the Duke of Bedford. 
Hence then we trace the source from whence 
Junius (identifying him with Wray) drew those 
anecdotes relating to the Duke of Bedford and 
his associates, Lords Gower, Weymouth, and 
Sandwich a , and of his Grace's conduct as 
" the little tyrant of a little corporation." b 

The next evidence to be submitted from the 
Letters of Junius of the author's connexion with 
the House of Yorke, is of so forcible a kind as 
to place the point in question beyond a doubt. 

Towards the close of the year 1769, during 
the prorogation of parliament, extraordinary ef- 
forts were made by the powerful Whig families 
in opposition, to strengthen their party, with a 
view of a change of ministry in the following 
session. Their efforts were so far successful as 
to win over the Lord Chancellor Camden, the 
Marquis of Granby, and some others. In allu- 

a Junius terms them three of the Duke of Bedford's " de- 
pendents." Letter 23. Sept. 19, 1769. 

b Letter 23. On the 4th Sept. 1769, being the day of elec- 
tion of Mayor and Bailiffs of Bedford, a successful attempt was 
made to liberate the borough from his Grace's influence. In 
this political struggle Home Tooke took a prominent part, 
and was elected a freeman by the corporation, in opposition to 
the wishes of the duke even in his own borough. Stephens's 
Memoirs of J. Home Tooke, vol. i. p. 107. 



12 

sion to this, Junius, in a private note to Wood- 
fall, of the date of the 26th of December, 1769, 
thus writes : " I doubt much whether I shall 
ever have the pleasure of knowing you, but if. 
things take the turn I expect, you shall know 
me by my works." His predictions of the day 
were generally, as it were, the experience of 
the morrow. On the 9th of the following 
month, the brief interval of only twelve days, 
Lord Camden made his memorable speech, im- 
peaching the conduct of ministry, in seating 
Mr. Luttrell for Middlesex, and his dismissal 
from office immediately ensued. Thus things 
began to take the turn Junius anticipated. A 
sad reverse, however, occurred. While the mi- 
nistry were in confusion, by the vacancy occa- 
sioned in the chancellorship, and momentarily 
expecting a dissolution, from the extreme em- 
barrassment in finding a fit successor, the Hon. 
Charles Yorke, overcome by the powerful influ- 
ence of the repeated personal entreaty of his 
sovereign, secretly instigated by the Duke of 
Grafton, became a renegado to his party, and by 
that act, Lord Chancellor of England. But, 
alasl in three days afterwards he was no more. 
The discovery, that in accepting the great seal, 
he had become the dupe — the tool of the king, 
and of the Duke of Grafton j the reproaches of 



13 

his brother; the displeasure of Lord Rockingham, 
and of his former political friends, unsettled a 
mind capable of bearing every thing but disho- 
nour, and, in an evil hour, his career was ter- 
minated by a death, sudden as it was violent. 

Now, mark the conduct of the Argus-eyed 
Junius during the occurrence of these important 
changes. He sleeps. This tale-bearing mes- 
senger of the great Jove of his idolatry— the 
people — opens not his mouth. Wracked at one 
moment by the anticipated realization of his 
fondest hopes, and confounded in the other by 
their unforeseen and appalling destruction, not 
a letter escapes him from the month of Decem- 
ber, 1769, to the 14th of February, I77O. And 
when he again addresses himself to his former 
task, " how different, and yet how like the 
same." The iron of disappointment seems to 
have entered his soul. It is then, and from that 
time only, that Junius oversteps the bounds of 
moderation, of decency, and discretion. His 
sarcastic irony is changed into the most virulent 
invective, whenever the king or the Duke of 
Grafton is the subject of his vituperation. And, 
on no occasion so much so, as when the death 
of poor Yorke, as he affectionately calls him, is 
the topic. How clearly does this unfold the 



14 

cause of those hitherto inexplicable and appa- 
rently wanton attacks upon the king. And, 
what is truly remarkable, as a corroborative cir- 
cumstance in the connection we are establishing, 
the very first communication after the long un- 
usual silence above alluded to, the untoward 
event of Yorke's much-regretted death is made 
a principal point of attack, although the Duke 
of Grafton was not at that time in office, having 
resigned a short time previous. Speaking of that 
resignation, in the letter referred to a , Junius 
observes, " one would think, my Lord, you might 
have taken this spirited resolution before you 
had dissolved the last of these early connections, 
which once, even in your own opinion, did ho- 
nour to your youth; before you had obliged 
Lord Granby to quit a service he was attached 
to; before you had discarded one Chancellor, 
and killed another. To what an abject condition 
have you laboured to reduce the best of princes, 
when the unhappy man, who yields at last to 
such personal instance and solicitation, as never 
can be fairly employed against a subject, feels 
himself degraded by his compliance, and is un- 
able to survive the disgraceful honours which 

* 14th Feb. 1770. 



15 

his gracious Sovereign had compelled him to 
accept ! He was a man of spirit, for he had a 
quick sense of shame, and death has redeemed his 
character. I know your Grace too well to ap- 
peal to your feelings upon this event; but there 
is another heart, not yet, I hope, quite callous 
to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to 
be a dreadful lesson for ever.' ' 

Junius's note* to this is also very remarkable. 
He adds : " The most secret particulars of this 
detestable transaction shall, in due time, be 
given to the public. The people shall know 
what kind of man they have to deal with." 

In the above quotation how plainly does the 
poignancy of disappointment, whether of ambi- 
tion or affection, or mingled of both, disclose 
itself. The tone of passionate personal feeling 
that pervades it, is too intensely wrought for any 
less than an intimate friend to have written. 
But when we find too that this is not a solitary 
instance ; that the subject of Mr. Yorke's un- 
timely death is either principally or incidentally 

* In Letter of 14th Feb. 1770. With respect to the notes, 
Junius makes this important declaration in his preface. 
" The notes will be found not only useful but necessary. Re- 
ferences to facts not generally known, Or allusions to the cur- 
rent report or opinion of the day, are, in a little time, unin- 
telligible " ! 



16 

noticed, more or less, in many of the subsequent 
letters of Junius, and on every occasion with 
the same ardency of feeling and expression, — 
there cannot remain, in any rational, unpre- 
judiced mind, a doubt of the connection of 
Junius with the House of Yorke. More fully 
to support and confirm that conclusion, the 
following additional extracts from the Letters of 
Junius are given : 

" My zeal for his majesty's real honour com- 
pels me to assert, that it has been too much the 
system of the present reign to introduce him 
personally, either to act for, or to defend his 
servants. They persuade him to do what is 
properly their business, and desert him in the 
midst of it. Yet this is an inconvenience to 
which he must for ever be exposed, while he 
adheres to a ministry divided among themselves, 
or unequal in credit and ability to the great 
task they have undertaken. Instead of reserv- 
ing the interposition of the royal personage as 
the last resource of government, their weak- 
ness obliges them to apply to it on every ordi- 
nary occasion, and to render it cheap and com- 
mon in the opinion of the people. Instead of 
supporting their master, they look to him for 
support ; and for the emolument of remaining 



17 

one day more in office, care not how much 
his sacred character is prostituted and dis- 
honoured.'^ 

To enforce, as it were, and bring home this 
passage, Junius himself, in a note to it, gives 
the following anecdote : — " After a certain per- 
son had succeeded in cajoling Mr. Yorke, he 
told the Duke of Grafton, with a witty smile, 
* My Lord, you may kill the next Percy your- 
self! — N.B. He had but that instant wiped 
the tears away, which overcame Mr. Yorke." 

On the report 5 of the Duke of Grafton's 
again coming into office, by being placed at the 
head of the Admiralty, under the signature of 
Domitian he attacks his Grace, and after shew- 
ing him up as treacherous to all his early po- 
litical friends by the seductions of the closet, 
and adverting to a few of the distinguishing 
peccadillos disclosed under the signature of 
Junius, he winds up the whole thus : " And in 
conclusion, he had made himself accessory to 
the untimely death of Mr. Yorke. — I say acces- 

a Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertizes, 3d April, 

1770. 

b December 8th, 1770. 

c The change of signature betrays the Author's fears of 
discovery, from the continual harping on one string. 

D 



18 

sory, because he was certainly not the principal 
actor in that most atrocious business. After 
all, Sir, when it was impossible for him to add 
to his guiltiness, a panic seizes him, he begins 
to measure his expectations by the sense of his 
deserts, a visionary gibbet appears before his 
eyes, he flies from his post, surrenders to an- 
other the reward due to his honourable services, 
and leaves his king and country to extricate 
themselves, if they can, from the distress and 
confusion in which he had involved them." 

Addressing the Earl of Suffolk under the 
signature of " Henricus," a and reproaching 
him for his desertion of the Whigs, he says 
" Had you, my Lord, been entrapped like poor 
Yorke, by the prevailing force which was con- 
tained in the personal entreaties and solicita- 
tions of majesty, and had your honour been 
seduced and struck into compliance, though we 
should abhor the act, we should acquit at least 
you of the guilt ; and you would have had a 
just claim to our pity, unmixed with our con- 
tempt. But, my Lord, what are we to say 
when we see a man in your Lordship's situa- 
tion stooping to so humiliating a consideration, 
as to entreat a connection in office with those 
a April 15th, 1771. 






19 

very men whom you had before reviled and 
despised ?" 

The last letter to be noticed on the subject 
of Mr. Yorke's death, is under the signature of 
"Junius," and addressed to the Duke of Graf- 
ton a , shortly after his being appointed Lord 
Privy Seal : and in the accompanying private 
note 5 to Woodfall, the Author thus speaks of 
it : "I am strangely partial to the enclosed. 
It is finished with the utmost care. If I find 
myself mistaken in my judgment of this paper, 
I positively will never write again." 

It is by far the most severe in its vitupera- 
tions of the king and the Duke of Grafton, and 
such as abstractedly no political feeling could 
call forth or extenuate. Not satisfied with 
pointedly naming Mr. Yorke, and charging his 
death as murder in the king and the Duke of 
Grafton, in another passage of the same letter 
he adds this striking, audacious paragraph : — 
<c Enough has been said of that detestable 
transaction which ended in the death of Mr. 
Yorke. I cannot speak of it without horror 
and compassion. To excuse yourself, you pub- 
licly impeach your accomplice, and to his mind, 

a June22d, ]77L 

* No. 35, Woodfall's Edit. 

D % 



20 

perhaps, the accusation may be flattery : but 
in murder you are both principals. It was once 
a question of emulation, and if the event had 
not disappointed the immediate schemes of the 
closet, it might still have been a hopeful sub- 
ject of jest and merriment between you." 

Having now established the personal connec- 
tion of Junius with the House of Yorke, the 
identification of its eleve Wray with Junius will 
be more easily proved ; and this we proceed to 
demonstrate. 



PART II. 

The salient point of the image and superscript 
tion of Wray that first appears through the 
letters of Junius, is in the collision of the Au- 
thor with Garrick. 

Among tire myrmidons of the court employed, 
but in vain, to penetrate the recess in which 
Junius lay perdue, the name of Garrick stands 
conspicuous; not so much from the extraordi- 
nary zeal of his espionage, but the severe casti- 
gation he received at the hands of Junius for 
his treacherous officiousness, in disclosing to 
the king, through the medium of Mr. Ramus, 
one of his majesty's pages, a confidential com- 
munication made to him by Woodfall, that 
Junius would " write no more." a The intelli- 

a On the 8th Nov. 1771, Junius, in a note to Woodfall, 
thus cautions him : " Beware of David Garrick, he was sent 
to pump you, and went directly to Richmond to tell the king 
I would write no more." (Private Note, No. 40.) Woodfall 
is also, on a previous occasion, cautioned against a person of 
the name of Swinney. — " That Swinney is a wretched, but a 
dangerous fool. He had the impudence to go to Lord Sack- 
ville, whom he had never spoken to, and ask him whether or 



22 

genee was conveyed to the king at his then 
residence at Richmond, and from Junius's note 

no he was the author of Junius, — take care of him." (Private 
Letter, No. 5, July 21, 1769.) 

These few words, says Mr. Butler in his Reminiscences* 
" disclose several facts ; — that Junius knew Swinney and his 
character — that Junius knew Swinney had called on Lord G» 
Sackville —that he knew that Swinney had never called on 
him before — and that Junius was acquainted with the inter- 
view very soon after it took place. From this," adds Mr. 
Butler, " it may be argued that Junius was intimate with 
Lord G. Sackville : it has even been inferred that he was 
Lord G. Sackville himself." 

Neither the argument nor inference are conclusive ; since 
admitting, as we must do, that Junius knew Swinney, we 
must also admit that from that source the former might 
equally acquire his intelligence of the latter's proceedings. 
But "who was the Swinney mentioned by Junius?" asks 
Mr. Butler. No one has even ventured a suggestion in reply. 
The answer we presume is to be found in one of Wray's 
letters, written to Lord Hardwicke while Junius is publish- 
ing his lucubrations. 

" Dr. Swinney, your Lordship's friend, presented his 
father-in-law Howell's Works, closing with quas aut incuria 
fudit, in a very audible voice." 

This alludes to a meeting at the Royal Society, where both 
he and Wray were associated as Fellows, as also at the An- 
tiquaries. They were also of the same University (Cambridge), 
and Swinney had been chaplain to the British Embassy at 
Constantinople. 

If this be indeed the Swinney, need we further enquire of 
whom Junius procured his intelligence of the visit to Lord 
Sackville ; nor should we feel surprised at Junius's cautioning 
Ms printer to " take care of him." 



23 

to Garrick, it appears he was apprised of it on 
the following morning. 

" TO MR. DAVID GARRICK. 

" Nov. 10th. 1771. 
" I am very exactly informed of your im- 
pertinent enquiries, and of the information you 
so busily sent to Richmond, and with what 
triumph and exultation it was received. I knew 
every particular of it the next day. Now mark 
me, vagabond — keep to your pantomimes, or 
be assured you shall hear of it. Meddle no 
more, thou busy informer ! It is in my power 
to make you curse the hour in which you dared 
to interfere with Junius." 

How such a transaction, occurring at Rich- 
mond, was acquired so early by Junius, has 
been matter of amazement. Assuming, how- 
ever, Wray to be Junius, it admits of a ready 
solution \ since both he and his father-in-law 
and the Yorke family had residences there, as 
well as his friend Mr. Cambridge, " who had," 
says Hardinge a , " a rage for news, and living in 

a See Article Wray, by Hardinge, in Nichol's Illustrations 
of Literary History. 



effect at Richmond, though residing on the other 
side of the water, he had the command of many 
political reporters, Mr. Wray's Lord Hardwicke 
included." 

Wray being also acquainted with Garrick, 
and both residing in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of each other, and mutually in very ex- 
tensive intercourse with the world, it naturally 
accounts for Junius's fears and anxieties as to 
the enquiries of the latter, and his considering 
it important to deter him from meddling ; for 
his apprehensions lest Woodfall might have com- 
municated the place where the letters were sent, 
and his desire of its being changed — and the 
policy of directing Woodfall to send Garrick a 
copy only of his letter to him, to avoid having 
the hand in which it was written (even presum- 
ing it feigned) loo commonly seen*. 

Inferring then from what has been advanced, 
that Wray, like Junius, had the means of ob- 
taining the knowledge of Garrick's Paul Pryism 
and the part he enacted of Busy-body at Rich- 
mond ; and, if Junius, that he was so circum- 
stanced as equally to be desirous of checking 
Garrick's curiosity, we shall now advance one 

a See Junius's Private Notes to Woodfall, Nos. 41 and 43. 






25 

step further, and shew that Wray, at the very 
time in question, was jealously observant of 
Garrick's movements, and writes of them to 
his correspondent, Lord Hardwicke, in words 
conveying the same idea and contemptuous, 
though modified, feeling, as Junius embodies 
in his letter to Garrick (before quoted) written 
at the same period. 

So close indeed is the similarity of thought 
and expression in both letters, that allowing for 
the circumstances under which each was writ- 
ten, any one conversant with literary composi- 
tion would pronounce the one to emanate from 
the other. However, the reader shall judge for 
himself. 

Wray, on the 15th of October, 1771* having 
previously, it should be observed, informed his 
correspondent, Lord Hardwicke, that the voy- 
age of the Endeavour had been settled, and that 
Hawkesworth was to be the writer recommended 
by Garrick*, says, " I think with you, that a 

a The Endeavour,, under the command of Captain Cooke, 
made a voyage round the world, and arrived in the Downs 
on the 13th of July 1771* Cooke was not introduced to his 
majesty for the purpose of presenting his journal of the voy- 
age till the 14th of August. On the 29th of the following 
month, the above intelligence is communicated by Wray. 
His early knowledge of it, and particularly of Garrick's in- 



26 

captain of marines for a part in tragedy, or a 
boatswain for a comic personage, might be as 
fairly recommended as Dr. Hawkesworth for a 
voyage writer. The author of the poem upon 
theatrical declamation, advising the actor to 
keep within his proper sphere, instead of giving 
himself airs, ends his tirade thus : 

" Votre etat de plaire, et non de proteger." 

Then on the 10th of the following month Ju- 
nius is found telling Garrick " to keep to his 
pantomimes." 

Observe, the former speaks of advising the 
actor to keep within his proper sphere ; the lat- 
ter to keep to his pantomimes : — the subject of 
both alike concerning the same individual, and 
indited within a brief interval of each other, 
Wray's being first, in point of time, and neither 
capable of becoming the copyist of the other, 
as both communications were private, — to indi- 
viduals. 

Further, it is to be noted, on the subject of 
Garrick's communication to the king, Junius, on 
the 10th of November 1771, tells his printer that 

terference in the matter, is surprising, and forcibly reminds 
one of Junius's early acquaintance with official news. 



27 

Garrick was sent to pump him, and went di- 
rectly to Richmond to tell the King he would 
" write no more/' And on the 27th of Novem- 
ber 1771, he again informs his printer that Gar- 
rick's disclosure had forced him to break his re- 
solution of writing no more. Now, mark : Wray 
at that period, viz. the 18th of November 1771> 
thus writes to Lord Hardwicke : " Had I per- 
severed in that apparently wise resolution to 
write no more, till I had some fact of consequence 
to relate, I should have been dumb with my pen 
till silence would become indecorum." 

But the communication made by Garrick to 
the king, announcing that Junius would write 
no more, carries with it still stronger evidence 
of Wray's being the archetype of Junius. So 
strong indeed, as to exclude all doubt, it is pre- 
sumed of the fact ; for Wray not only gives the 
same intimation to his correspondent, Lord 
Hardwicke, but actually assigns the very cause, 
and prefixes the precise day on which Junius 
designed to conclude his correspondence in that 
character, had he not been forced by Garrick, as 
he expresses himself, to break his resolution of 
writing no more. 

The 59th letter of Junius on what the au- 
thor calls the unhappy differences which had 



arisen among the Friends of the People, is the 
one with which he had originally intended to 
conclude his publications under the name of 
Junius, and may still in some respects be re- 
garded as the concluding letter of the volume ; 
for by it evidently the plan is finished; the let- 
ters afterwards added, being merely explanatory 
of hints thrown out during the previous discus- 
sion a . That letter is dated October 5, 1771. 
Six days previously* (mark that!) Wray writes to 
Lord Hardwicke as follows : 

# # # # u jsfash will carry his election for Lord 
Mayor ; but if thus far the cause of liberty may 
suffer in the city, it has its triumphs in other 
parts of the town. Messieurs the Managers of 
Covent Garden Theatre wait upon the shilling 
gallery to assure the good company that Mr. 
Shuter has bona fide, as others may have done, 
strained his ancle ; and the soldier whipt at the 
Tower makes affidavit before a justice of the 
peace, that he is not killed, or dead, but living. 
These proper attentions may satisfy the good 
people of England for a month, accompanied by 
the finishing dose of Junius on Saturday." 

a Atticus Secundus's edit, of the Letters of Junius : by Oli- 
ver and Boyd, page 53. 
b September 29th, 1771- 



29 

In perfect accordance with this decided in- 
timation, the intended finishing dose did ap- 
pear. The 5th of October 177 1, was on a Sa- 
turday. 

But what clinches the evidence, and gives con- 
firmation, strong as proof of holy writ, is that 
Junius's letter of that day contains the same 
subject as Wray's, which prefixed its appear- 
ance — the election of Nash as Lord Mayor : — 
that by which Wray fears the cause of liberty 
mil suffer, the friends of liberty are called upon 
by Junius to unite in opposing is the election 
of Nash as Lord Mayor a . Then follows the 
coup de grace — Junius's own express declaration 
of Nash's election (from disunion among the 
friends of the people) being the cause of his 
ceasing to write. " The shameful mismanage- 
ment", says he, " which brought him into of- 



a Nash's election Junius also makes the subject of a letter 
on the day following (30th of September) that on which 
Wray's (29th of September) was written. Junius's intro- 
mission of himself into city politics, and the importance which 
he appears to have attached to one man being lord mayor 
rather than another, did not escape the acumen of that pleas- 
ing reminiscent, Mr. Butler, as a forcible objection against the 
claim of the aristocratic Lord George Sackville. Yet it is a 
characteristic of Wray and a natural one too, he being the 
son of a city knight born and educated within its precincts. 



so 

fice, gave me the first and an unconquerable 
disgust." a 

Surely with such striking coincidences, such 
direct evidence as this before him, he who 
doubts, would still be doubting though one rose 
from the dead for his conviction. 

But these marvellous coincidences, which can 
no otherwise be accounted for, but by admitting 
the unity of authorship, rest not here, but are 
continued during the interval, from the 5th of 
October 1771, until Junius, as such, is forced 
to break his resolution of writing no more, by 
Garrick's treacherous disclosure ; both of them 
being occupied with the marriage of the Duke 
of Cumberland with Mrs. Horton. 

Junius, under the signature of Cumbriensis, 
makes that marriage the subject of a distinct 
letter (13th of November I771 ), and also of two 
paragraphs, sent on the 11th of November 1771 
for insertion by Woodfall as soon as he thought 
proper, in one of which is given the following 
intelligence : 

" The Earl of Hertford is most honourably em- 
ployed as terrier, to find out the clergyman that 
married the Duke of Cumberland, an errand 

a Junius to Woodfall. Private note, No. 56, February 22, 
1772. 



31 

well fitted to the man. He might, however, be 
much better employed in marrying his daugh- 
ters at the public expense, witness the promise 
of an Irish peerage to Mr. St — t," &c. 

Turning to the correspondence of Wray with 
Lord Hardwicke, at the same period, viz. the 
18th of November 1771> after complaining in a 
previous letter to his noble correspondent that he 
had nothing to do, and was stript of topics, (pre- 
sumedly the case of Junius,) he thus writes : — 

" Dukes do not marry and elope every week. 
Porten a I found enveloped in the decyphering 
screen. 

" It was a sub-curate of Grosvenor Square 
who married his R. H. It is by some disputed 
whether at present the parties are three leagues 
from Paris, or three miles from London." b 

Nine days after this, viz. the ^8th of Novem- 
ber 1771» Junius again resumes his lucubrations 
under that signature, in which also the marriage 

a Sir Stanier Porten, under secretary of state, a relation of 
Wray's by marriage ; and scarcely need it be hinted to the 
reader, what a source of secret political intelligence was there 
open to Wray. 

b The brevity, yet pregnancy of meaning in this and all 
Wray's communications is strikingly characteristic of Junius's 
private notes of intelligence to Woodfall. 



32 

of his Royal Highness is one of the principal 
topics. But further : Junius at the same time 
combines with that subject sarcastic observa- 
tions on Sir James Lowther's defeat in his con- 
test with the Duke of Portland, and on the Se- 
cretary of the Treasury, Bradshaw. A similar 
combination of the three subjects, which is scarce- 
ly possible to have happened fortuitously, oc- 
curs in one of Wray's letters a to Lord Hardwicke 
during the interval of Junius's silence; and what 
makes it more important, it is previous, in point 
of time, to the one in question from Junius, 
and, as it were, the heads of his intended public 
letter. 

" I have seen ", says he, sneeringly, " great 
men — His Royal Highness' s preceptor, three 
other bishops, a secretary of the Treasury, Sir 
James, and the flower of the medical class — but 
in their facts they emulated the vice-chancel- 
lor"*, &c. 

a October 15th, 1771. 

b Who., it may be asked, was this Vice Chancellor? The 
force of the answer will be obvious. No other than the tra- 
velling companion of his Grace the Duke of Grafton, to whom 
the letter of Junius in which the three subjects in question 
are contained, is addressed ; the veritable Vice Chancellor of 
Cambridge, Dr. HinchlifFe, who, in his official situation, 



33 

And six days previous, and six only a , to the 
one of the 28th of November 1771, from Junius, 
there is this intelligence from Wray to Lord 
Hardwicke : 

" On Wednesday the cause of Inglewood Fo- 
rest was determined in the Exchequer ; Sir 
James clearly nonsuited, on account that one- 
third of rent was not reserved to the Crown in 
the grant, in pursuance of 1 Queen Anne. It 
was reserved by a covenant, but not in the legal 
form. The lease therefore is void, and the Duke 
will hold the estate by the late act of Sir George 
Savile, by which possession is made secure after 
unimpeached possession for sixty years." 

And, as it were, to fix the relation between 
Wray and Junius, the above is preceded by this 
intimation: — " The divisions are great in the 
besiegers' camp \ particularly between Lord 

made an oration in praise of his Grace, on introducing him 
to the Senate House on the morning of his installation to the 
Chancellorship of that University. 

Junius also alludes to him in his Fifteenth Letter, ad- 
dressed to the Duke of Grafton, at the close of the sentence 
we have previously had occasion to quote (page 9.), con- 
trasting his Grace with Lord Hardwicke. " The venerable 
tutors of the University will no longer distress your modesty, 
by proposing you for a pattern to their pupils. The learned 
dulness of declamation will be silent." Junius, Vol. I. p. 512. 

a November 22d, 1771. 

E 



34 

T— and C— n, about the author of Junius' s Let- 
ters."* 

" These few words", says Hardinge, in a 
note upon this passage, " are of no trivial im- 
port, and they wonderfully confirm a passage 
in a conversation between Lord C — n [evidently 
Camden] and me. He told me that many things 
in Junius convinced him, that the materials were 
prompted by Earl T — le \ and he mentioned, in 
particular, a confidential statement, which had 
been made in private between Lord Ch — m, 
Lord T — le, and Lord Camden ; which, from 
the nature of it, could only have been disclosed 
by Lord T— le through Junius to the public." 

We may echo the words of Hardinge, and say 
these words are of no trivial import, since they 
confirm the evidence of Wray's being Junius. 

a Junius himself was also ever alive to the subject of au- 
thorship. Swinney's inquiry of Lord George Sackville, as to 
" whether or no [he was the author of Junius ", and its early 
communication to Woodfall by Junius, will occur to the 
reader's recollection. (Private Letter, No. 5.) 



PART III. 

In the course of the preceding pages exhibit- 
ing the causes of the origin, progress, and ter- 
mination of the Letters of Junius, it has inci- 
dentally been shewn that the enmities of Junius 
were those of Wray, springing alike from the 
same attachment to particular persons and fami- 
lies : it follows too, that in their friendships 
they were not divided. To make, however, a 
point of such importance as to identity directly 
apparent, instances will now be adduced proving 
that where the friends of Wray have suffered, 
Junius has not been silent ; where Junius has 
exposed aggressions towards individuals, the 
aggrieved were the friends of Wray. 

Among the recorded grievances in Junius's 
celebrated Letter to the King, is the dismissal 
from ministerial office of the Hon. H. B. Legge. 
It is thus generally noticed : " A little personal 
motive of pique and resentment was sufficient 
to remove the ablest servants of the crown, but 
it is not in this country, Sir, that such men can 
be dishonoured by the frowns of a king. They 

e 2 



36 

were dismissed, but could not be disgraced." 8 
But lest the particular allusion should be lost 
in the general observation, Junius adds the fol- 
lowing words in a note to this passage : " One 
of the first acts of the present reign was to dis- 
miss Mr. Legge, because he had some years 
before refused to yield his interest in Hamp- 
shire to a Scotchman recommended by Lord 
Bute. This was the reason publicly assigned 
by his Lordship." 

Mr. Legge, when thus dismissed, held the 
office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which 
important situation he had remained, with a 
brief interval, from the year 1754 ; having also, 
previous to that appointment, sat at the Trea- 
sury board of the Exchequer as one of the 
Lords Commissioners 5 . And during the whole 
period of his continuance in office and that of 

a Junius, December 19, 1769, Woodfall's Edit. Vol. II. 
p. 69. 

b See a complete List of the Lords Commissioners of the Trea- 
sury in the Appendix, commencing with Wray's appointment 
as Deputy Teller to the period when Junius ceased to write, 
viz. from 1745 to 1773; which, with the account of the Ex- 
chequer offices, also in the Appendix, will serve to explain 
how Junius could acquire a more than ordinary knowledge of 
official individuals, and especially of secret matters relating 
to the Treasury, the subject of Junius's surprising disclosures. 



37 

his several successors beyond the appearing of 
Junius, as a political writer, Mr. Wray was 
officiating as one of the Deputy Tellers of the 
Exchequer, and participating in carrying into 
execution those very measures necessarily de- 
volving upon the Chancellors to propound. No 
one could therefore have a better opportunity 
of appreciating the relative merits of the dif- 
ferent Chancellors ; no one could with more 
propriety take upon himself to pronounce Mr. 
Legge to be " one of the ablest servants of the 
crown." 

As Mr. Wray's friend, the first mention of 
Mr. Legge that occurs in the published cor- 
respondence of the former with Lord Hard- 
wicke, is in the following letter of the 9th of 
August, 1757 ; the subject being Lottery 
Tickets — a matter of finance occasionally no- 
ticed by Junius \ 

"On Thursday, at one o'clock, just as the 
Board was breaking up, they sent for the De- 
puty Auditor and the Tellers. It was to com- 
mand that we should dispose of the undrawn 

a Junius to Wilkes, Private Note, No. 66, Woodfall's 
Edit. Vol. I. p. 283. -Junius, 9th July, 1771, Vol. II, p. 
254. 



38 

tickets, (more than two-thirds of the whole 
number.) 

"We of course made our excuses — we de- 
precated such an ample trust. His Grace 
kindly replied, that we who were known officers 
of the public, merited their confidence ; and so a 
they dismissed us to furnish places, persons, 
and methods for the purpose. 

" My old friends, the Chancellor and Lord 
Duncannon, most graciously saluted me at my 
entrance : but no memory of the Egyptian or the 
Roman Club — of the noctes ccenasque Deum — 
prevailed upon them to second my sincere nolo 
tickettare," &c. 

Mr. Legge's secretary, Dr. Butler, afterwards 
Bishop of Hereford, was formerly suspected to 
be Junius, — a suspicion carrying some weight 
in Wilkes's opinion, " because the references in 
the Letters of Junius to the Bible were not to 
the received translation, but to the vulgate, 
which he said the Bishop always used." 5 It is 
somewhat remarkable that this uncommon qua- 

a This is a peculiarity of expression in Junius, " and so 
I wish you a good night." — (Private Note, No. 5. WoodfalFs 
Edit.) 

b Butler's "Reminiscences," Vol. I. p. 81. 



39 

lification should also be found in Mr. Legge's 
friend, Wray. He too was a Hebraist 3 , and 
actually refers to the vulgate in one of his 
Letters 5 to Lord Hardwicke; so that here also 
is combined in Wray what, per se, in the case 
of Dr. Butler, was deemed sufficient to coun- 
tenance an opinion of his being the Author of 
the Letters of Junius. 

In Junius's exposure and reprobation of Lord 
Weymouth's removal of Sir JefFery Amherst 
from his post of Governor of Virginia, to make 
a place for a needy court dependant, and of the 
breach of good faith and disingenuousness by 
which it was effected, there is apparent a 
warmth of feeling beyond that of a mere politi- 

a In Gilbert Wakefield's Memoirs of his own Life, there is 
a pleasing confirmation of this fact. " Most fortunately/' 
says he, "my father dined one day with the late Daniel 
Wray, Esq., of Richmond, a well-informed man, who had 
been educated at Cambridge, and was one of the Authors of 
the admired Athenian Letters. As this gentleman was an 
excellent linguist, I made known to him my embarrassment 
respecting the acquisition of the Hebrew. He expatiated on 
the extreme absurdity of attending to the points; lent me 
Masclef's Grammar; and in the course of ten days, I had 
read in my father's Polyglott, by the help of Buxtorf's 
Lexicon, nine or ten of the first chapters in Genesis without 
much difficulty, and with infinite delight." — (Vol. I. p. 100.) 

b October 13, 1777. Hardinge's Life of Wray. 



40 

cal writer, and a knowledge of facts which such 
an one could not acquire. It is however in 
Junius's summary of the particulars in his last 
reply to the various efforts of Lord Weymouth 
and his hirelings to get rid of the charge of 
illiberality and want of candour in that trans- 
action, that he more particularly betrays the 
truth of his assertion, viz. " my authority is in- 
disputable." " Take it, my Lord, finally" says 
he, " and disprove it if you can. Lord Boute- 
tort's appointment was fixed on or before Sun- 
day. You called at Sir JefFery Amherst's on 
the Wednesday following. He was not in 
town, but you saw him next day (Thursday). 
You then told him that such a measure was in 
contemplation, but far from naming his suc- 
cessor, you did not tell him that his successor 
was appointed. Yet Lord Boutetort kissed 
hands the next morning (Friday) ; and the first 
notice Sir JefFery Amherst received of his Lord- 
ship's appointment, was by an express sent to 
him that evening by his brother."* 

That brother was Wray's friend, and observe 
Junius does not say the express was sent by 
Colonel Amherst, as a stranger to the family 

a Miscellaneous Letters, No. 43, WoodfalFs Edit. Vol. III. 
p. 147- 



41 

would have written, but by his brother ; in like 
mariner as Wray also familiarly speaks of him, 
in his correspondence with Lord Hardwicke at 
the period when Sir Jeffery is achieving those 
victories in America for which he afterwards 
received the appointment in question. Wray's 
words in the letter alluded to are these : — 

" MY DEAR LORD, 

" The good news that now sets in from all 
quarters, is in such quantities, that it really dis- 
tracts one's attention. Amherst 9 s brother is 
come this morning to confirm what is already 
in the papers." — (From the Office, September 
8, 1759.) 

The displacing of another individual, Mr. 
Stuart Mackenzie, furnishes very strong proof 
of the community of friendships of Junius and 
Wray, and of the one being identified in the 
other. The singularity of the advocacy of this 
individual's removal by the constraining in- 
fluence of the Duke of Bedford is, that he was 
the son-in-law of " the favourite/' — Lord Bute. 
This case is also twice noticed by Junius. And 
most extraordinary would it be if it happened 
fortuitously, since the first time it is joined by 



42 

Junius with another, and yet the same import- 
ant subject as Wray's — the resignation of Lord 
Chatham ; and on the second occasion with that 
of the death of Mr. Wray's friend, Mr. Charles 
Yorke ; coincidences, we contend, so uncom- 
mon, as to remove mountains of doubt, if any 
could exist after what has already been proved, 
as to the individualitv of the two writers. 

Wray, on the matter in discussion, thus writes 
to his correspondent, Lord Hardwicke, the 18th 
October, 1768. 

" I hear that our friend (Mr. Stuart Macken- 
zie) is to be succeeded, as Lord Register, by 
Lord Frederick Campbell ; and from the same 
authority, not contemptible, that Lord Chatham 
has resigned in anger." a 

And Junius afterwards 5 says, addressing him- 
self to the Duke of Grafton, 

" Lord Chatham formed his last administra- 
tion upon principles which you certainly con- 
curred in, or you could never have been placed 

a In Nov. 1768, Lord Bristol succeeded him as Lord Privy 
Seal. We again observe how forcibly does the mode in which 
this intelligence is expressed, the secret nature of the subject 
communicated, and its fulfilment shortly afterwards, remind 
one of the private notes sent by Junius to Woodfall. 

b 30th May, 1769. 



43 

at the head of the Treasury. By deserting those 
principles, and by acting in direct contradiction 
to them, in which he found you were secretly 
supported in the closet, you soon forced him to 
leave you to yourself, and to withdraw his name 
from an administration which had been formed 
on the credit of it." Then in the next paragraph 
of the same letter he adds, " And if it be ne- 
cessary to betray one friendship more, you may 
set even Lord Bute at defiance. Mr. Stuart 
Mackenzie may possibly remember what use the 
Duke of Bedford usually makes of his power." 

Again, on the 14th July, 1770, Junius, ad- 
dressing the Duke of Grafton, shortly after the 
death of Mr. Yorke, in the sentence following 
that which we have had previous occasion to 
quote a , wherein he violently expresses his re- 
sentment at the presumed cause of that ill-fated 
individual's death, we find that event thus joined 
with the case of Mr. Mackenzie : " The Duke 
of Bedford was more moderate than your Grace. 
He only forced his master to violate a solemn 
promise made to an individual." 

Among those towards whom Junius was fa- 
vourably inclined and designedly spared, may 
also be named Lord Holland, who, although 

a Page 14, but see Woodfall's Junius, Vol. II. pp. 95—7. 



44 

charged in the City Petition (presented to His 
Majesty, July 5, 1769) with peculation, or at 
least as " the public defaulter of unaccounted mil- 
lions," in his office of paymaster; a subject at 
that period much canvassed; not only refrained 
from publicly attacking him, but, privately \ to 
his printer, Woodfall, expresses a wish that 
Lord Holland " may acquit himself with honor." 
Such an expression of feeling, Wray would be 
likely to entertain, Lord H. being the brother 
of Lady Cornwallis, with whom and Lord C. 
Wray was on terms of the closest intimacy, and 
in whose family prosperity he felt the warmest 
interest. Writing on one occasion 5 to Lord 
Hardwicke, he says, " To-day's Gazette is a 
cordial which I hope will give us a fillip. You 
will, I am sure, allow me to feel a particular 
satisfaction from the renown acquired by the 
son of my two old and good friends, Lord, and 
Lady Cornwallis" Lord Holland, it should 
also be observed, formed one of the Treasury 
Board at the period when Wray entered on his 
duties as Deputy Teller of the Exchequer; 

a See Private Letter, No. 5. July 21, 1769. Woodfall's 
Edit. 

b Sept. 30, 1780. Earl Cornwallis's Victory at Camden in 
America. 



45 

and was, of course, officially in frequent inter- 
course with his Lordship, and subsequently 
when Paymaster of the Forces. 

From the consideration of men let us next 
turn to measures, and observe whether the same 
perfect accordance in sentiment exists between 
Wray and Junius respecting the latter, as we 
have seen to be the fact as to the former. 

One of the principal leading measures that 
agitated the public mind in the time of Junius, 
concerning which men of all parties were di- 
vided, and whereon scarcely any of the Whigs 
agreed, was Mr. Grenville's American Stamp- 
Act ; involving the question of the supremacy 
of Great Britain over America, and its correla- 
tive, the right of taxation. 

Unpopular as this measure of Mr. Grenville's 
proved, yet singular it is, that Junius, the ad- 
vocate of the people, invariably supported it. 
This singularity gave rise to an opinion, very 
early entertained, that Mr. C. Lloyd, one of the 
Deputy Tellers of the Exchequer, and the se- 
cretary of that patriotic minister, was the author 
of the Letters. But circumstances, connected 
with the last illness and death of Lloyd, have 
evinced its fallaciousness. Nevertheless, the 



46 

ground-work of that opinion must still be main- 
tained by any one endeavouring to establish 
the Junian identity. The party to be identified 
must be, in regard to the dispute between this 
country and its colonies, An ti- American. Now, 
such was Wray, the associate of Lloyd, as one 
of the Deputy Tellers. The sentiment escapes 
in one of his Letters a to Lord Hardwicke. 

" Mr. Yorke most kindly sat with me last 
night. He meditates an expedition to the moun- 
tains of Cambria. He is a bold and steady 
Anti-American. Et sapit, et mecum Jacit." 

A previous letter b of his, also to the noble 
Lord, shews that he, as well as his friend, was 
peculiarly alive to the American disputes, since 
he therein is found communicating the heads of 
one of Lord Chatham's speeches on the morning 
following its delivery. 

" My prognostic," writes he on that occasion, 
cc of the new peruke at Hayes was not vain. 
Yesterday verified it in the House of Peers. ,,c 

a Aug. 10, 1775. Nicholas " Eighteenth Century." Title, 
1 ' Wray." 

*> May 27, 1774. Nicholl's « Eighteenth Century." Title, 
" Wray." 

c The Lords of Parliament at this period went full-dressed 
to the House in rolled stockings, swords, and tie-wigs. 



47 

" The great man began his oration to a thin 
house, no minister present but Lord Suffolk. 
He was temperate and gentle through the whole ; 
and by no means excused the Bostonians. He 
said, they must acknowledge the authority, and 
repair the damages. The bills were mere seve- 
rity. He disliked also the condemnation of the 
unheard ; a dangerous practice. How different 
was the usage of those who were guilty of the 
late rebellion ! They had fair trials. Then he 
introduced a handsome eloge upon the head of 
the law in that period. He described himself 
as a man without views of employment; but 
there are, who do not quite believe him." 

This communication establishes the fact, that 
Wray (blessed, as his biographer a expresses it, 
with wonderful powers of memory) took notes 
of speeches in parliament; a material point, 
since it is quite evident from passages in Junius's 
Letters, that he also was occasionally present at 
debates, taking notes, particularly of the speeches 
of Lords Chatham and Camden and Mr. Burke. 
But what is a most remarkable corroborative 
circumstance in connection with the present 
link of identification, the only report extant of 

* Hardinge's Life of Wray. 



48 

the first speech of the great Lord Camden in the 
House of Lords, (traces of which are to be met 
with in Junius on the American disputes a ) is 
derived from the Hardwicke papers left by 
Wray's friend and patron, Philip, the second 
earl of that name. An express acknowledge- 
ment of this is made in Hansard's Parliamentary 
History b . From the same MSS. the historical 
reader derives not only the report of the debate 
" On the Disturbances in America in conse- 
quence of the Stamp Act," but the debate also 
in the House of Lords (Feb. 10, 1766), " On 
the power of the King to make Laws and Statutes 
of sufficient force and validity to bind the colo- 
nies and people of America," and the " Minutes 



a Woodfall's Junius, Vol. III. pp. 175, 185. 

b " This important debate," says the Editor, " is now first 
printed from a MS. in the Hardwicke Collection, obligingly 
communicated by the present Earl of Hardwicke." In the 
Preface to Hansard's 3rd vol. there is also the following pas- 
sage: " The Editor cannot suffer the present volume to appear 
unaccompanied by his grateful acknowledgements to the Earl 
of Hardwicke, for the communication (among various notes 
and debates and other papers, in which accounts are given of 
what passed in parliament) of the interesting MS. Parlia- 
mentary Journal of the Hon. P. Yorke, eldest son of Lord 
Chancellor Hardwicke, containing an account of the debates 
from the opening of the third Session of the ninth Parliament 
of Great Britain, in Dec. 1743 to the 10th of April, 1745." 



49 

of Proceedings (Dec. 10, 1768) in the House of 
Commons, respecting the Discontents in Ame- 
rica ;" so that it may reasonably be asked, Does 
not this unique evidence generate of itself more 
than a suspicion of Wray's being Junius? 

Corsica and its cause was a subject interesting 
to Wray from his acquaintance with Paoli, the 
unfortunate chief of that deserted republic. In 
the Letters of Junius, too, we find several allu- 
sions to it, and strong invectives against the 
British ministry for their abandonment of it a . 

Of the cause in which that political Agonistes, 
Wilkes, suffered, Junius was a warm advocate, 
and as warmly opposed those measures that were 
directed against it. Wray presumedly felt a 
similar interest ; since, what is remarkably sin- 
gular, a letter of his to Lord Hardwicke is 
dated ^7th of October, 1768, "J. Wilkes's Eve," 
(being the eve of Wilkes's birth-day,) at the 
very period too when Junius is writing in de- 
fence of that cause. His patron and corre- 
spondent also, it is well known, was zealous for 
" Wilkes and Liberty." Indeed, so notorious 
was the fact, that Lord Sandwich's partizans 

a Junius, Letter 3, 7th Feb. 1769. Letter 15, 8th July 
1769. Misc. Letters, No. 48, 19th Oct. 1768. 

F 



50 

made it a matter of invidious observation against 
Lord Hardwicke on the contest for the High 
Stewardship of Cambridge a . 

With Wilkes Junius occasionally correspond- 
ed 5 ; yet it was not the pseudo-patriot, but the 
cause he promoted, and with which he became 
inseparably connected, that animated Junius in 
supporting him . For, when the demagogues 
of the city " had so intermixed their own pri- 
vate interests and their private squabbles in the 
public cause, as to render the cause itself con- 
temptible in the eyes of the people at large" — 
when they, by disregarding the urgent advice 
of Junius, had occasioned the election of Nash 
as Lord Mayor, to the " unconquerable dis- 
gust " of Junius ; he then is found privately 
counselling Woodfal] "to be much on his guard 
with patriots." d At the very same period Wray 

a See Public Advertizer, 7th of April, 1764. 

h Mr. Butler in his Reminiscences (Vol. I. p. 82,) observes, 
" The letters, generally, if not always, were sent in an enve- 
lope, (which was then by no means so general as it now is,) 
and in the folding up and the directions of the letters, we 
(the Reminiscent and Wilkes) thought we could see marks of 
the writer's habit of folding and directing official letters." 
This also tallies with Wray's circumstances. 

c " I love the cause, independent of persons." — Junius. 

d Private Letters, No. 44, November 27, 1771- 



51 

also, privately to Lord Hardwicke, expresses 
himself contemptuously of patriots, and in the 
same letter previously quoted from a , in which 
he speaks of his disappointment in Nash being 
elected Lord Mayor, and of his fears that there- 
by the cause of liberty might suffer. "Our 
patriots," he observes, "however enlarged their 
ideas may appear to themselves, will be con- 
temptible in your Lordship's, when you have 
read the enclosed proposals, which extend the 
notion of country to the Antipodes." 

But what completely identifies the passage as 
emanating from the pen of Junius, and clenches 
the evidence already given is 3 that in his next 
private letter to Wilkes (after expressing his 
wounded feelings at the latter's disregarding his 
advice in respect of the City Election, speaking 
at the same time contemptuously of the pro- 

a Page 28. — In the quotation referred to, the word "tri- 
umphs" occurs, furnishing another mark of identity. Wray 
writes, " Nash will carry his election for Lord Mayor; but, 
if thus far the cause of liberty may suffer in the city, it 
has its triumphs in other parts of the town," alluding to the 
defeat of Sir James Lowther in his contest with the Duke of 
Portland. Junius, in the following month but one, makes 
this defeat the subject of his exultation, and uses the word 
triumph in expressing it. (See Letter to the Duke of Grafton, 
28th of November, 1771.) 

F 2 



52 

posals of the Bill of Rights Society" alluded to 
in Wray's letter) he expresses the same senti- 
ment, though in different words. " I think in 
good policy you may as well complete a re- 
formation at home, before you attempt to carry 
your improvements to such a distance. Clearing 
the fountain is the best and shortest way to 
purify the stream. As to taxing the Americans 
by their own representatives, I confess I do not 
perfectly understand you. If you propose, that 
in the article of taxation they should hereafter 
be left to the authority of their respective as- 
semblies, I must own I think you had no busi- 
ness to revive a question which should, and 
probably would, have lain dormant for ever. 
If you mean that the Americans should be au- 
thorized to send their representatives to the 
British Parliament, (and thereby, in the words 
of Wray, ' extend the notion of country to the 
Antipodes,') I shall be contented with referring 
you to what Mr. Burke has said upon the sub- 
ject," &c. 

a He characterizes the proposals as being cc palpably absurd 
and impracticable/' as "ridiculous/' and "laughed at by 
people who mean as well to the cause as any of us," and 
doubts " the sincerity of the proposers" — Woodfall's Junius, 
pp. 277 and 283, Vol. I. 



53 

But the distinguishing feature of Junius's 
political sentiments, is that of his uniform and 
persevering advocacy of the principles and 
maxims of "the glorious Revolution," and of 
the cause of the leading consistent Whig fami- 
lies by whom they were entertained. Wray, 
too, was distinguished by his connection with, 
and attachment to, the Whigs, and animated 
by a more than ordinary interest in the prin- 
ciples of the Revolution. In his correspond- 
ence 3 with Lord Hardwicke this is explicitly 
avowed, in a remarkable declaration occasioned 
by the publication of two sermons by the cele- 
brated Dr. Watson, afterwards Bishop of Llan- 
daff, one of them being entitled " the Principles 
of the Revolution vindicated." 

" The Divinity professor's low flying sermon 
has received strictures from a wealthy hosier, 
known to the Church as a member of the So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel." 

" He is a Tory of the old Filmer stamp, and 
will not convince or please many readers ; yet 
he is not without some good strokes at the 
Doctor." b 

a October 19, 1776. 

b The parallel of this is in Junius. Speaking of Dr. 
Blackstone, (author of the Commentaries,) he says, " Now 



54 

" But non tali auxilio. The Whigs are the most 
offended at such rhapsodies ; and this preacher 
should have been reproved by one of us* for 
drawing such invidious and false consequences 
from our sacred b principles" 

This personal appropriation — this solemn in- 
troversion of the abstract principles of the Re- 
volution, is so strikingly peculiar as to corrobo- 
rate very forcibly, if not establish, what has been 
already assumed, that the writer was the author 
of the Letters of Junius ; more especially, bear- 
ing, as it does, on the face of it, those verbal and 
other resemblances pointed out in the notes, 
and also the ecce signum, as it were, of Junius, 
since the quotation " Non tali auxilio" adopted 
by Wray is twice similarly used by the former. 

for the Doctor," " At 'em again, Doctor." — (Woodfall's Edit. 
Vol. I. p. 570.) "As to the Doctor, I would recommend 
him to be quiet. If not, he may perhaps hear again from 
Junius himself." — (Philo-Jun. Vol. I. p. 543.) 

a Junius, too, was desirous of confining the reproof of par- 
ticular persons to himself, and jealous of the interference of 
others. Under the signature of Anti- Belial, he says ' ' I have 
great faith in Junius, aud wish the friends of the cause would 
leave Lord Mansfield entirely to his care. It is not fair to 
anticipate his arguments or to run down the game which he 
has started." — (Misc. Letters, No. 103. Woodfall's Edit.) 

b f The sacredness of our common cause." — (Junius's 
Misc. Letters, Vol. III. p. 278.) 



55 

Alluding to Lord Townshend and his brother 
the Hon. C. Townshend, Junius writes a , 

" Are these the pair who are to give stability 
to a wavering favourite, and permanency to a 
locum tenens administration ? Alas ! alas ! 

" Non tali auxilio," &c. 
Again, under the signature of Anti-Stuart b 9 

" Your correspondent Anti-Van-Teague, in 
your paper of Friday se'nnight, has undertaken 
a task far, I am afraid, above his abilities. His 
inclination I believe to be very good, but 
" Non tali auxilio," &c. 

a August 25, 1767, (Misc. Letters.) In this letter he in- 
forms us, " I am not a stranger to this par nobilefratrum. 
I have served under the one, and have been forty times pro- 
mised to be served by the other. Its accordancy with the 
relative circumstances of Wray is obvious. He was Deputy 
Teller of the Exchequer, while one of the brothers was a Lord 
Commissioner of the Treasury and the other was Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, and of course in attendance upon both. 

b March 24, 1768, (Misc. Letters.) The subject and sig- 
natures here are with reference also to the Revolution. 



CONCLUSION. 

The closing act of Junius's labours was the 
Dedication of them " to the English Nation " 
with this declaration, " I am the sole depositary 
of my own secret, and it shall perish with me." 
That he should, while living, be desirous of 
concealing the authorship, exposed as he was 
to the violent enmities he had provoked among 
those whom he designates " the worst and most 
powerful men in this country," is reconcilable 
with the suggestions of common prudence and 
discretion ; but that he should voluntarily re- 
nounce all personal title to posthumous fame- — 
that he should die and make no sign, is such an 
instance of philosophical indifference, of self- 
devotedness to a cause, only to be paralleled 
among that people from whom he derived his 
cognomen. And yet the prototype is Wray ! 
Gifted with knowledge and attainments above 
his fellows, and eminently distinguished in the 
pursuits of literature, he, too, left no acknow- 
ledged production, (though many exist anony- 



57 

mously) to mark his name : and that the secret 
of his literary labours might perish with him, 
by a codicil to his will (the last recorded act of 
his life), he expressly ordered all — all his papers 
to be burned. 

But, how limited, indeed, is human foresight ! 
In the accidental preservation and subsequent 
publication of the Private Letters of Junius to 
Woodfall and Wilkes, and of Wray's to Lord 
Hardwicke, we behold confounded " the wis- 
dom of the wise" — we behold revealed the 
secret of the authorship of the Letters of 
Junius. 



APPENDIX 



SELECTIONS 

FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF MR. WRAY 
WITH THE HONOURABLE P. YORKE, 

AFTERWARDS LORD ROYSTON, 

AND THE SECOND LORD HARDWICKE. 



" Queen's College, Cambridge, 
Jan. 8, 1741. 

" Nothing has flattered me so agreeably as that con- 
fidence and intimacy you treat me with, after an acquaint- 
ance so lately made; though I rather fancy I fix the 
aera of it too low. I had heard of your extraordinary 
qualities from all my Cambridge friends, and was much 
at your service before I ever saw you ; and G. R. a and 
H. C., a I reckon, had puffed my humour to you : 

' Virgilius, post hunc Varius dixere quid essem.' 
So that without ante-dating my patent, I may lawfully 

* He often speaks of his friends Rooke and Coventry, to whom, 
therefore, I apprehend these initials refer. — G. R. was Dr. George 
Henry Rooke, afterwards Master of Christ's College, and a writer in 
the Athenian Letters. Coventry was the author of the Dialogues 
of Philemon and Hydaspes. He was an admirable scholar, and a 
very accomplished man. Two of the Athenian Letters are by him. 



60 

take my seat amongst your old friends. But this may be 
carried much higher, beyond all positive institution, quite 
into the original fitness of things. 

' Certe est quod me tibi temperat astrum.' — 

" Our dispositions are suited to each other. The ease 
and fire you write with is very oddly joined with an appe- 
tite for being criticised ; and my attention to minute 
particulars* qualifies me to find fault with pieces that 
are the most correct. You, most unlike an author, dis- 
trust your own judgment ; and I, like a true critic, am 
peremptory in my decisions. If you emulate Gracchus, 
I take myself to be no bad Licinus ; and have my pitch- 
pipe always ready to take you down a note or two. Ima- 
gine yourself a play-wright, then I sweep your stage ; or, 
if you are considered as a preacher, I ring the bell, and 
sometimes, perhaps, furnish a text. 

" But the relation between us b , I allow, is only to last 
while you are at leisure, illudere chartis, and are divert- 
ing yourself in the porticos of Athens, and the gardens of 
Susa c . When you leave this fairy land and settle in 
Britain, I resign my censorship. I wait upon you to 
the door of the House, consigning you to the judgment 
of the public, and the correction, if you should want it, 
of the orators. 

3 Junius also declares, " I weigh every word, and every altera- 
tion, in my eyes at least, is a blemish." (Private Note to Woodfall, 
No. 45.) 

b " I acknowledge the relation between Cato and Portia," &c. 
(Junius's Private Note to Wilkes, No. 77.) 

c Part of the local in the correspondence between Athens and 
Persia in the Athenian Letters. 



61 

" Thus far had I written as an apology for the un- 
merciful licence I took with your Last Philosopher* , and 
was going on to the Cambridge Gazette, when I received 
the favour of your second, and found my friend Mr. 
Charles^ had exhausted the only article of consequence. 
That iniquum certamen, ubi ego verberando, &c. be- 
tween me and Madam M. has indeed engrossed all the 
speculations of this place. The affair of Dormer and 
Pulteney was but a type of it. The General could never 
be so tragical as our heroine, nor was the Member of 
Parliament half so arch as your humble servant. There 
was a design of putting us under arrest, with a beadle at 
each of our doors ; but the Vice Chancellor being acci- 
dentally a man of the world, took our parole of honour, 
and we travelled all over the town, representing our case 
at every tea-table : you will easily imagine what ad- 
vantage the thunder of my eloquence gave me. I made 
Miss F. C. speak, and the Rector of Drayton stare. 
The personages you would name for mediators were my 
avowed advocates, and, assisted by my little friend, who 
is an absolute dragoon, and can fight as well on foot as 
on horseback, turned the Monday nighfs roar so strongly 
in my favour, that 

' Ready stood two precious drops, 



Each in their crystal sluice.' 

But I forbear : I must not triumph ; we are very good 
friends, and on Sunday, a thick piece of bread and butter 

a Alluding to one of the Athenian Letters. 

b The celebrated Charles Yorhe. 

c I am not antiquary enough to elucidate this passage. 



62 

was ordered for me, in the presence of Lord Dupplin 
and Mr. Townshend. 

' Quid voveat dulci nutricula majus alumno ? ' 

The abovesaid Honourable and Iiight Honourable, — a 
Vice Chancellor of our own, Dr. Simpson*,-— a new 
Master of Magdalen still more orthodox, Rhoderick's 
cousin, Abbot b , — and statutable stuffing at Christmas, 
will, I trust, be some excuse for my delay in answering 
you. Besides, as you candidly observe, by sending Mr. 
Charles, I sent you more than I had to say. 

" If your Philosopher be at all improved, it is owing 
to him. All I did was to raise a few doubts and objec- 
tions. He most readily entered into the spirit of them, 
and presented immediately the thought or expression I 
was looking for ; 

* Nor could I burn so fast as he could build.' 

The compliments you transmit from the ladies make me 

so proud, that I can scarce deign to subscribe myself 

your humble servant, 

" D. W." 



October 7, 1742. 

" I so utterly detest all compliments, that I have con- 
tracted an awkwardness in giving utterance to the debts 
of honour in gratitude, and in esteem, which I mean, and 
wish to pay. I am puzzled very often to say what I 

a Edward Simpson, LL.D., Master of Trinity Hall. 
b Edward Abbot, M.A., of Emanuel College j Master of Mag- 
dalen College, 1740—1746. 



63 

have most at heart, in addressing an agreeable friend, or 
a fine woman. 

" I am determined in future to reform in style, and 
have some complaisant phrases for pocket-money upon 
occasion. I find they are necessary ; and, without being 
more civil, I cannot be sincere. 

" In the mean time, till I am perfect in the new dia- 
lect, I must throw myself upon the fertile imagination of 
those who love me, and who will, in their benevolence, 
add the lumina orationis in their due places a . 

" I took up lately Petronius ; and the further I went 
with him, the more do I wonder how critics (I do not mean 
the literal, the word- catchers, but those majorum gen- 
tium who talk of spirit, of taste, and of sense,) came to 
allow him so high a rank in their order. His observa- 
tions relative to the art are by no means uncommon ; and 
they are seldom accurately deduced, or clearly expressed. 
Indeed they are but few, and come in — one can scarce 
tell how. 

" The book is a novel, formed upon low and grossly 
debauched characters, which, for aught I know, may be 
well enough marked out and preserved. The distance 
of time, and the difference of manners, throw obscurity 
over such writings ; and the text is often corrupt, as well 
as mutilated. But I cannot, and will not suppose that it 
could, even to a Roman of his day, have more of enter- 
tainment than we allow to the Polite Conversation of 
Swift. They are pictures of objects which deserve no 
attention. I say nothing to the obscenity, as it certainly 

a " I dare affirm that a more elegant paragraph, and more in- 
geniously turned cannot be discovered in English prose." 

Hardinge. 



64 

was in more general fashion at Rome, than as yet it is 
with us. In a little time, perhaps, we shall be ancients 
in this particular : our leaders at Paris are so already. 

" I should mention the verses, which I think are ad- 
mired. There is now and then a good line, but they are 
most unequal in the same copy ; some are bombast, others 
quite insipid. You, who are so covetous of your time, 
will abuse me for throwing away mine. But the author's 
reputation tempted me page after page. Hope whispered 
the good that was to come at last. In truth, I have been 
too much in motion, and my thoughts continue to vi- 
brate. I endeavour to fix them, but hitherto in vain ; so 
His me consolor. I amuse, if I cannot content myself." 

October 10, 1745. 
" You will probably, dear Sir, knit your brows, and 
will turn up your nose at a direction in my hand, who was 
never good at a news-book, and, in my recent attention 
to Exchequer business, must be unqualified the more to 
give you any information. But I don't mean to inform 
you : I mean to thank you. An event of such consequence 
to me, so unexpected, and sudden, besides the hurry of 
settling myself in the office, kept me in such a perpetual 
agitation of spirits, that every part of this transaction ap- 
peared 6 like a phantasma, or delicious dream.'' I was 
in the condition of the Sultan just lifting his head out of 
the water ; nor could I, for the soul of me, conceive, how 
such a multitude of things could have happened in six 
little days, or that my situation could have been altered 
from all it was, or thought it should ever be, a week be- 
fore. But, now that I am seated in your deputed throne, 
and have snuffed up the caelum Aventinum, the sober air 
of the Exchequer, I have returned in some degree to my 



G5 

senses ; and the more I consider your favour, the more I 
turn it over in all its lights, the more heightened is the 
obligation. In this age, corrupt as it is called, and as I 
believe it is, here is an instance of great preferment (for, 
amongst ourselves in the office, we may allow that it is 
great), bestowed, not upon the footing of parliamentary 
interest, or private accommodation, or because a Duke 

is my cousin, arid my sister a a ; but, who can 

believe it ? Because you love me, and because my Lord b 
is not wise enough to disallow the modest claim of dis- 
interested friendship ; because you think I shall discharge 
the duty reposed in me faithfully, and have a kind pre- 
possession that (ut me collaudem) I am good for some- 
thing else. It is the reverse of Swift's Great Man and 
his Dependents : 

' At table you can Horace quote, 
He at a pinch can bribe a vote/ &c. 

There is, however, I doubt, some danger as to the poeti- 
cal and classical qualifications. May not the chink of 
the money-bags a little spoil the ear for diviner music ? 
And may not we learn to hold a bank-note more canta- 
bile than an ode ? 

' Inter scabiem tantam, et contagia lucri ? * 

Horace wonders that his friend Iccius can study the 
Philosophers, et adhuc sublimia curet ; and I can scarce 
believe that Agrippa's Bailiff in Sicily had more weights 
to hinder him from soaring than your Deputy has. 

a Junius, also, uses similar language. — " Granted to support the 
chastity of a Minister's whore, the integrity of a pimp, or the cor- 
rupted blood of a bastard." (Misc. Letters of Junius, No. 27.) 

b Lord Hardwicke (the Chancellor). 

G 



66 

" This affair has one circumstance, which, when it 
first struck into my head, made me a little serious. — You 
had honoured me with your affection, and, what is ever 
the consequence of such whims, treated me as your equal. 
Now, this equality is no more ; not only from the rela- 
tion of principal and of subordinate, but from the very 
obligation itself : we are properly no longer friends ; we 
are patron and client. But my second thoughts have 
set all this right again. The best part of my good for- 
tune is, that I am obliged to you. Favours received from 
a man of sense and virtue, are just and reasonable mo- 
tives to conscious pride. Nay, to join the sentiments of 
gratitude with principles of esteem and affection, sup- 
plies an honest heart with a new set of pleasures. If I 
look abroad for the opinion of the world, how honour- 
able to be distinguished by you and Lord Chancellor! 
And amongst our acquaintance, the manner in which you 
offered and confirmed the boon, will place me in the most 
advantageous light. That verse of Terence hits my 
case, and I cannot get it out of my head : 

' Non tam ipso dono quam abs his datum esse, 
Hoc vero sensu triumpho,' 

I hold myself obliged to lay before you, as my principal, 
a journal of my transactions ever since jovl left the 
Exchequer upon my shoulders. Imprimis I waited upon 
the Lords of the Treasury, where I encountered a full 
board. When I came in, Mr. Pelham graciously wished 
me joy. I took a short oath, and then boldly (though 

Mr. L- looked at me over the back of his chair) 

walked round the table to him, and I delivered your 
compliment pretty roundly. He answered, 6 that he went 
out early that morning, but Lord Chancellor had men- 



67 

tioned me to him, and he was glad so worthy a man was 
appointed.' He went on to ask me after Mr. Towns- 
hend ; I mumbled, I bowed, and I took my leave. By 
the time that I got back to my office it was time to lock 
up the chest ; so all my business was to turn, and carry 
off a most formidable key. These duties thus over, 

* Inde domum me 

Ad porri, et ciceris refero, lachanique catinum.' 

I took a dinner of milk, to reduce my spirits into disci- 
pline of temper amidst all this glory. Yesterday I wrote 
the solemn words, Daniel Wray, Deput. horCblis Phil. 
Yorke, upon many long parchments, with great suffi- 
ciency. I even asked some few questions, partly for in- 
formation, partly to persuade the clerks that I was not 
entirely ignorant; for Charles's Mr. Parker*, and 
Tommy Townshend's Mr. Dive b , had given me lights. 
They are able and willing to lead me into all the myste- 
ries, and through them. To-day, having signed so man- 
fully before, I had only to observe the course ; and all 
this I affirm to be as pretty amusement as running half 
the day over the town to find scarce a human creature at 
home. I cannot help telling you, like the Journalist in 
the Spectator, that, upon the faith and credit of my office, 
I bought a pair of garters, have actually chosen cloth 

for a coat, and am thinking of a mahogany table 

" I am, Dear Sir, 

" Your most affectionate, 

" Obliged, and gratefully devoted, 

"D. wray: 1 

a John Parker, Esq. 

b John Dive, Esq. First Clerk in the Office for Annuities, under 
the Auditor of the Exchequer. 

G 2 



68 



About 1745. 
" Your doctrines de re vestiarid are no less orthodox 
than de re medicd. The warm ivaistcoats are accord- 
ingly laid in ; and the Shag, toties decant atus, has long 
since been delivered over to the secular arm of Anthony*. 
But I have provided an equal successor; non deficit 
alter. I may add that it is aureus, for the silver lace 
almost is ripened into gold. Indeed, I intend my ward- 
robe shall be ever equipped with such venerable antiqui- 
ties. They are a kind of breast-plate, in which the 
satirical wit of my bantering friends will remain sus- 
pended when I am safe behind it b . If I did not aban- 
don to their archness a waistcoat, they would pick a hole 
in my coat/" 

Oct. 25, 1746. 

" . . . . The Quarter is received, and a laudable one 
it is ; ready for you at your pleasure. The other day, 
when money was paid for the army, I could not but re- 
flect with pleasure on the persons of the Deputy Pay- 
master, and of the Deputy Teller. The golden age, 
thought I, of Augustus, or of Charles the Second, is 
returned, 6 when wits had places \ — But must not my 
imagination have run up to the two Principals, and 
close the verse, — c and great men had wit 1 ? 

a His servant. 

b On another occasion he uses the expression " hid themselves 
behind their wives." This extreme peculiarity of expression also 
twice occurs in Junius. " Lord Mansfield's policy, in endeavour- 
ing to screen his unconstitutional doctrines behind an act of the le- 
gislature, is easily understood." (Junius, Letter 63. 22d Oct. 1771.) 
" It has been possible for a notorious coward, skulking under a pet- 
ticoat, to make a great nation the prey of his ambition." (Misc. 
Letter of Junius, No. 3. 24th June, 1767.) 



69 

" It was edifying to observe Mr. Gr. count his notes, 
and sign his receipts with all that phlegm, and that ab- 
sence of sprightly images, which becomes an officer of 
the revenue ; when I, with equal gravity, leaning over 
my desk, superintended the labour. Ecce spectaculum 
dignum ! I wish every dull fellow in the nation had 
assisted, in order to be convinced what men of business 
we make." 



Oct. 6, 1759. 

" Justice Lediard has kept, by way of trophies, I 
imagine, some letters found in that gentleman's cabinet a ; 
not letters of state, — let not your curiosity be alarmed, — 
but a correspondence between him and Plunket, his fel- 
low labourer in the fortune-hunting line of politics. 
That rascal, it seems, acted in the capacity of Archer, 
when his honoured lord and master made love in Aim- 
well's manner. 11 



Aug. 21, 1759. 

" Much have I to see at Wrest, much to hear ; for I 
trust your Lordship may indulge me in what may have 
transpired from the Marshal Contade's papers. Our 
specimen of him in the last Gazette was a bad one. Are 
not Duke Werdinand's orders remarkably well written? 
They appeared so not only to me, but also to one of the 
oldest, and surely one of the best writers now left, the 
Bishop of W. — Winchester. 

" But how strange, that after every affair, successful 
or unfortunate, we must have trials, ill blood, and fac- 
tions ! 

' The celebrated Madeline's. 



70 

",."... The Swedish papers are of an odd cast ; 
fierce, and obstinate in re, tedious and awkward in modo. 
I hope we shall not have anything to do with them, 
though we are told they are to make a visit in the north, 
accompanied by Mons. Thurot. Will this loss in Ger- 
many indispose our French adversaries to an attempt 
upon England, or drive them into it ? / sat near an 
excellent man at the Admiralty the other day, who com- 
forted me with all the difficulties attending such a de- 
sign? 

Sept. 11, 1759. 

" The i?300 loan, opened on the vote of credit the 
day before I came to Wrest, was soon filled. Yesterday 
came a second of £200, which goes on well a . 

" The subscription of this year is at last, after so 
many Gazettes extraordinary, advanced above par, in- 
cluding the use on the Lottery Tickets b . As the ac- 
counts from Spain give us five men of war got into 
Cadiz, it has been concluded that the other two of the 
seven escaped from Boscawen, or had fallen into our 

a Two open loans at the Exchequer, in small sums, in conse- 
quence of a vote of credit of £1,000,000 in the preceding Session 
of Parliament. 

b In another letter, quoted at p. 57, Lottery Tickets are also 
mentioned. Wray writes, " On Thursday, at one o'clock, just as 
the Board was breaking up, they sent for the Deputy Auditor and 
the Tellers. It was to command that we should dispose of the 
undrawn Tickets (more than two-thirds of the whole number)." 
Junius also frequently alludes to them and their application. " It 
is not possible to ascertain what further advantages he (Lord Bar- 
rington) may have made by preference in Subscriptions, Lottery 
Tickets" &c. (Vol. III. p. 457. See also p. 434.) 



71 

hands; but this, after all, is logic, not history*: we 
must not therefore depend upon it" 



Sept. 27, 1759. 

" I acknowledge two letters ; one, a most friendly, 
and cheerful answer, the other on business. First, 
therefore, of the second. The subscription was pro- 
posed, and was urged by His Grace of Newcastle with a 
speech, and with his own £500. Lords Anson, North- 
umberland, and Berkeley, i?200 each. Legge, Charles 
Townshend, General Cornwallis, George Cooke, James 
West, James Colebrook, ^100. Lord North, £50; 
and other small sums. 

" Yesterday, at one of the bankers, I saw Lord Lin- 
coln's name for i?200; and I have heard that Lord 
Hardwicke has given the like sum. Thomas Towns- 
hend you see in the city list for ^100. These are all 
my data at present ; but subscriptions come in daily, 
though somewhat slowly, at the bankers'. 

" At Guildhall, I hear, seven or eight hundred men 
have been enlisted ; but it is added, that, like the urbana 
colluvies, they desert apace. 

" Your mock at my invasion fears was rather unsea- 
sonable ; as, at the time I received it, the commander- 
in-chief was in the act of setting out for examination of 
our defence on the Essex and Kentish coast. 

" Your Lordship still has a thirst for more of these 
particular histories. In truth, I am tired of so many 
that are of the same inhuman kind, slaughters, burnings, 
and starvings, &c. 

a " This is fact, not declamation." (Junius, Letter 56.) 



72 

" How is the lately rich and beautiful dominion of 
Saxony changing every day its plunderers ! Leipsick 
is already once more Prussian. So we believe is Dresden. 
If so, the Saxon corps may as well return to Contade. 

" I spent some few, and very agreeable days at Moor 
Park*; and flatter myself to have been of some little 
use to the Solicitor 13 , as he saw not a soul but the Arch- 
deacon. We visited the environs of Latimers in parti- 
cular, which, in the Doddingtonian phrase, is ' one fea- 
ture^. It is indeed, & Buckinghamshire beechen dale, 
such as you meet over the Chilterns, improved," &c. 

" D. WRAY." 

Sept. 11, 1760. 

" However I may dislike the unanimity which has 
cost us millions, yet I am not of Kate Matchlock's opi- 
nion, who rejoiced at a war at home or abroad. But in- 
deed, if one judges from papers in the coffee-house, and 
prints in the shop-windows, nothing else is to be ex- 
pected. 

" A more violent spirit never has been raised. Ho- 
garth himself has joined the Adventurers, and has fairly 
taken his post amongst Grub Street engravers ; nor is he 
a bit more ingenious than his brethren, and rather more 
obscure, as he does not stick labels in the mouths of his 
figures c ; his only distinction is, that he has chosen the 
less popular side. Vict a Catoni. 

a Then Lord Anson's country seat, near Rickmansworth, Herts. 

b Mr. Charles Yorke, who had then lost his first wife, mother 
to the present Earl of Hardwicke. 

c " If there be any vacancies in the canvass, you will easily fill 
them up with fixtures, or still life. You may shew us half a Pay- 
master, for instance, with a paper stuck upon the globe of his eye, 
and a label out of his mouth''' (Junius, Vol. II. p. 473.) 



73 

44 . . . . You ask after my comes jucundus ; not only 
as being pro, but in vehiculo. It was impossible that I 
could have terminated my delightful rustication at 
Wimple better than by passing a day with a man whose 
conversation I so much and so justly admire. If your 
Lordship thinks of a journey to Hagley this autumn, 
you must not be angry if I envy your happiness. 

44 I have not leisure, as you know, to beat over the 
town for genii, or to way-lay the wits upon the King^s 
Road. Stuart has not fallen in my way. But that I 
should not appear quite an alien from the ingenious, I 
can boast that Hoadly a dined with me yesterday, in his 
way to Garrick, at Hampton. 

44 ... . These fluctuations [of the funds] reach not 
the residence from which I write 5 . Our drums have 
been renewed by the harvest moon. Papa had last night 
a very noble one. The meanest figure was an Esquire 
of the Bath." 

Sept. 10, 1768. 
44 .... I have somewhere met, here and there, with 
a little specimen or two of Bleterie's Tacitus c , and like 

* Dr. John Hoadly, the Bishop's youngest son, and Chancellor 
of Winchester. 

b Mount Ararat, his country residence, at Richmond. 

c Junius, as well as Wray, frequently quotes and alludes to Ta- 
citus. Addressing Sir William Draper, Sept. 25, 1769, Junius 
writes, " If I understand your character, there is in your own 
breast a repository, in which your resentments may be safely laid 
up for future occasions, and preserved without the hazard of dimi- 
nution. The c odia in longum jaciens, quae reconderet, auctaque pro- 
meret,' I thought only belonged to the worst characters of antiquity. 
The text is in Tacitus ; you know best where to look for the com- 
mentary." (Vol. II. pp. 8 — 9. Woodfall's Edit. See also quotation 
from Tacitus, Vol. II. p. 465.) 



74 

it wonderfully. But what can one do with any version 
of such a writer but compare now and then a shining 
passage with its original, out of curiosity ? The sup- 
plement will be of more use. 

" . . . . The improvements in Blenheim gardens are 
considerable. The valley below the bridge winding be- 
twixt woody banks, and with fine old trees upon them, is 
covered by water, and it ends in a perpetual cascade. 
It is at once pleasing and magnificent. Just now they 
are continuing it further. The Provost of Eton, who 
converses with Brown, told us that he himself cries it 
up as the master-piece of his genius. 

" . . . . There is published at Lisbon, not, of course, 
without the consent of that Court, a memorial, sett 
forth in strong colours the miserable state of the na- 
tion a , who are, it says, 6 Christians without a head \ 
and praying for a version of the Bible. Can a serious 
man help rejoicing at this dawn of religion, and of com- 
mon sense, where they were so little expected, though 
we should sell them fewer barrels of cod, and of her- 
rings? Our merchants are, however, better pleased, that 
in future they will be obliged no longer to accept in pay- 
ment the bills of the companies. 

" .... I have to thank you for the obliging invita- 
tion to Wimple, and for adding to its agremens, though 
it wanted no such aid, your project of summoning Mr. 
Jenyns? 

a " Admitting my representation of the melancholy state of this 
country, and of public credit, to be strictly true." (Junius, Vol. 
III. p. 156.) " In my former letter I have given you a melancholy 
i)ut a true representation of the state of this country." (lb. p. 
166.) 



75 

Oct. 1, 1768. 

" We found all the world gaping at the King of Den- 
mark 

" At the Queen's ball, after several country dances, 
he asked his brother monarch whether his Majesty was 
tired ? ' Not at all ', replied the King ; and called for 
The Hemp Dressers,, which he continued for two hours. 
At Carlton House the same question was returned upon 
the Dane, who confessed himself abattu, and cried 
quarter. Our friend a at the Ferry is not reduced to the 
expedient of a nunnery for his daughters. He has found 
choice of habits a la Beguin amongst his Hindoo 
friends ; and for his own castan, or serdar, a hat-full of 
emeralds, of rubies, and of topazes. He is so learned 
upon muslin, with or without stars, upon dresses for the 
camp or the durbar, &c. that I would advise a person 
who is not curious in re vestiarid ultra Gangem, to keep 
out of his way. 

" . . . . We saw lately at the Exchequer the will of 
a rich soap-maker, who leaves i?1000 to the great and 
good patriot William Pitt, late Secretary of State. 

" The distribution of tickets for the Danish masque- 
rade seems not to content the fine world. The city of 
London has 400, Liverpool and Manchester 30 or 40 
a-piece, and each University 50. 

" I reckon that one may fall to my share, and shall 
be happy to meet Roger Long, Edmund Law, and the 
Divinity Professor, in their characters of Harlequins 
and Punchinellos. The Vice-Chancellor may choose 
between the Doctor s robes and his gown of King's Ad- 
vocate. He will be no unsuitable pendant to Sir Tho^ 

■ The Rev. R. O. Cambridge, of Twickenham, near Richmond, 



7<5 

mas Robinson, who will be certainly a principal Ji- 
gure."* 

Oct. 18, 1768. 

" . . . . It is a miserable topic of consolation for us 
old men, that, if our contemporaries leave not us, we 
must leave them. One by one mine have almost all of 
them left me ; and happy, thrice happy, am I to have 
had the opportunity of making younger connexions. My 
first prayer, and my last is, May Heaven preserve the 
house of Yorke ! 

" I hear that our friend is to be succeeded as Lord 
Register by Lord Frederick Campbell ; and from the 
same authority, not contemptible, that Lord Chatham 
has resigned in anger b . 

" . . . . But, indeed, my concern for that body is 
much cooled by our late grievous loss. Into what hands 
the administration may fall, I cannot guess ; and whe- 
ther so many fresh water sailors may not be for putting 
their oars into that boat as to sink her. 

" . . . . Just now, in my ride, I saw in the Park c 
their Majesties in their chaise and pair of cream-colours ; 
and the Duke of Newcastle with his four grays, and 
Andrew Stone. The carriages met ; but, according to 
the most authentic information of two fern-cutters, no 
conference." 

a The style of this passage, as well as the words, forcibly reminds 
one of the Letter of Junius giving an account of Lord Townshend's 
turn for portrait painting. See Vol. II. p. 471, Woodfall's edit. 

b In November, 1768, Lord Bristol succeeded him as Lord Privy 
Seal. The passage is noted in p. 42. 

c Richmond Park. 



77 

Oct. 15, 1771. Dean Street. 

" If I may compare great things with small, I am in 
the same case with your Lordship, — little to do, — and 
stript of topics. But should I venture to divert my 
idleness 3 , when I have no information to give you? 
You complain, that your Cambridge Heads furnished 
not a single fact. Why, facts, my Lord, grow not upon 
every hedge ; and if Dyer were to rise from the dead, 
he could never support his periodical MS. 

" As to the Heads, during my academical scene, a 
moiety perhaps was dull, a few agreeable, and my per- 
sonal friends — in general good enough to pass a dinner, 
and smoke an evening's pipe. Hcec est conditio vivendi. 
It is in vain to expect every day. 

c Insigne, recens, adhuc 
Indictum ore olio.' 

Nor are great examples wanting, or at a distance, for 
proof, that facts are not of the importance that some 
folks would assign to them. 

" Without any events at all to account for it, a sud- 
den, as well as considerable fall of stocks took place, 
even upon a Saturday afternoon, a fortnight ago. No- 
thing asserted could stand for a moment b ; but the sinking 

a " Having nothing better to do, I propose to entertain myself and 
the public." (Junius, Private Letter, No. 52. Jan. 25, 1772.) 

b " The weight of the funds is of itself sufficient to press them 
down. How then should it be possible for them to stand ?" &c. 
(Junius, Vol. III. p. 79.) 

" In my last letter I foretold the great fall of the Stocks, which 
has since happened, and I do not scruple to foretell that they must 
and will fall much lower. Yet I am not moved by the arts of 
stock-jobbers, or by temporary rumours, magnified, if not created, 
for particular purposes in the Alley. These artifices are directed 



78 

went on, continued at first by a set of jobbers, who had 
sold stock for time, and had made insurances upon the 
falling scheme. They employed brokers, who usually do 
business for the knowing ones, to sell out of all the funds 
at once. That gave the alarm, and people followed hel- 
ter-skelter. 

" We hear likewise from Change Alley, that insur- 
ances are now doing there at £5 to receive dfPlOO in case 
the Pretender should be King of Poland in two years. 
This too sets all facts at bay. 

" Have you heard of the congress at Inverary? So 
fine a duke, and so fine a duchess, there, opening house 
after so long an interregnum, drew all the country ; and 
though fifty beds were made, they were so crowded, that 
even David Hume, for all his great figure, as a philoso- 
pher and historian, or his greater as a fat man, was 
obliged by the adamantine peg-maker to make one of 
three in a bed. 

to maintain a fluctuation, not a continued fall." (Junius, Vol. III. 
p. 157.) 

" I never lay in wait to take advantage of a sudden fluctuation, 
much less would I make myself a bubble to bulls and bears, or a 
dupe to the pernicious arts practised in the Alley? (Misc. Letter, 
19th Aug. 1768.) 



PASSAGES 

FROM 

A POETICAL PORTRAIT OF MR. WRAY, 

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF a , 

AND COMMUNICATED TO HIS FRIEND ME. WOLLASTON, 
OF CHARTER-HOUSE SQUARE. 



After an introduction in which he makes his friend ask 
him, in language full of humour and comic satire, why 
he is not gravely ambitious — a politician — a popular di- 
vine — a justice of peace, or an attorney ; he makes this 
answer : 

" My dearest friend, for reasons more than one 
Those crowded roads to wealth and fame, I shun. 
Retir'd from honest toil, by fortune blessM, 
On me his care, his hope, my father plac'd, 
Child of his age ; nor thought it wise to spare 
What many a Plumb would grudge his booby heir. 
By Walker b taught Pelides* wrath to read, 
And Philip's arms by Attic thunder staid, 
With nobler truths my opening mind to store 
Me Cam receiv'd upon his learned shore. 

a Composed while on a visit in 1738 or 1739 at Yartie House 
in Devonshire, the seat of Lord King, and first published in Har- 
dinge's Life of Wray. 

»> Thos. Walker, LL.D., Head Master of Charter-house School 
when Mr. Wray was a scholar there. 



80 

The Freshman there no greasy gown did wrap ; 
Gold were my tufts, and velvet was my cap a ; 
In state my dinner I cum Sociis eat, 
And loird on Sundays in the RevVend pit ; 
Thus plac'd, who saw me well might judge my sire 
Some Bank Director, or wide-acred squire. 

" But, not content with ease, and science, there, 
For classic earth I long'd, and Baian air : 
My mother from my fond embraces torn, 
Whom I must ever honour, ever mourn, 
Though loth to part, yet studious to prevent 
My faintest wishes, wept, and gave consent" 

He then describes the scene from which he writes in 
lines full of spirit, but closing them with his favourite 
nymph Euphrosyne. 

" Here too my jokes I crack with high-born Peers, 
And Club testons b with future Knights of Shires. 
King, Darcy, Douglas c , my free sallies bear, 
Nor Marlborough' 's d Heir disdains my chaise to share. 
ReturnM, my sum of crotchets to complete, 
Amongst the sages of Crane Court e I sit. 

* * * * 
The passion too, which did the boy engage, 
Assum'd new vigour with my ripening age : 

a " Those badges of the Fellow Commoner form, in this passage, a 
line worthy of Pope in cadence and poetical effect." (Hardinge.) 

b A foreign coin. 

c Lord King, Lord Holdernesse, and Lord Moreton. 

d This, I apprehend, was Charles, Earl of Sunderland, who be- 
came Duke of Marlborough in 1735. 

e The Royal Society, into which he was received in 1 729. 



81 

The passion for the Muse — still as ye roll, 
My years respect it ! nor untune my soul a ; 
While whims thus various filPd my labouring brain, 
Say, could I court the chiefs in Warwick Lane ? 
For barbarous Norman lose my Tuscan change, 
And through the Law's wide lab'rinth puzzling range 5 ? 
Could I bow low, a rustling scarf to get, 
To a fool's head beneath a coronet : 
And, long to coxcombs used to give no quarter, 
Praise vice and folly circled in a garter ? 
With a pad nag and books at my command, 
To buy a Borough, should I sell my land ; 
With panting lungs d ambitious to debate, 
And fast at Westminster, to dine at eight. 
# # # # 

. . . Just where the fancy leads, I stroll about, 
And ramble with associates, or without ; 
At Ripley's fabrics laugh, or feed my eye 
With RysbracWs bust, or Hogarth's charity ; 
From the Comptroller's boat survey the piers, 
Or gape at rattle-snakes and Greenland bears. 

a Here, it should seem, he was fond of the muse ; yet except 
those vers de societe, an inscription at Wimple, and another trifle, 
we have not a known verse of his hand. Probably many exist 
anonymously. Those which remained in his own possession at the 
time of his death, were, by the codicil to his will, expressly ordered 
to be burned. (See Note (b), p. xv. in the Introduction.) 

b "Admirably expressed." (Hardinge.) 

e " Pope would not have disowned these lines j and they are 
very like him. I recollect a verse by him : 

" * Bare the best heart that lurks beneath a star. 1 " (Hardinge.) 

J This alludes to his constitutional malady. 

H 



82 

With rambling tired, with gazing satisfied, 

Now RathmellV awful curtain opens wide 5 , 

To seat me in that friendly-jarring train 

Who bow the knee to Pellafs gentle reign, 

Where Birch displays his candid vehemence, 

Keen to collect, and eager to dispense, 

And where a Cctndish c , tho' no Chatsworth Lord, 

Would charm with taste and sense the listening board. 

My day with peers and claret now I close, 

And factions in our little Rome compose ; 

On Bourchier's friendly summons I attend, 

And to a nipperkin of Port descend : 

The charms of science now with Folkes d I taste, 

Enlarged by freedom, and by friendship grac'd. 

6i When Summer calls, the empty town I quit, 
And Tony* with his cloak-bag all my suite : 
Ride whether north or south, to Queen's or Yartie, 
Or at Knoll Hills f complete the stubborn party. 

a This man kept a coffee-house on the North side of Henrietta- 
street, Covent Garden, much frequented by Dr. Mead, and other 
Literati at that time. 

b The several boxes in the coffee-room were at that period sepa- 
rated from each other by a curtain only ; a custom now obsolete. 

c Junius also thus abbreviates the name in one of his Private 
Notes. Speaking of a packet which Mr. Woodfall had received for 
him, with the Arms of Cavendish on the cover, he says " the paquet 
cannot come from the Candishes, though there be no end of the 
family. They would not be so silly as to put their Arms on the 
cover." — (Private Note, No. 10.) The mode too of spelling 
packet is a peculiarity of Wray's. (See ante p. xii. Introduction.) 

d President of the Royal Society. 

e A servant who remained with him to his death. 

f The summer retreat of Nicholas Hardinge, Esq. 



83 



Forgive, dear Friends, if it exceeds my power, 
To push your int'rest, or increase your store. 
Happy, that mirth and reason I can blend, 
And laughing still your little follies mend ; 
That without me you pass with less delight 
The cheerful morn, and philosophic night ; 
If no mean pleasures taint my heart or fame, 
No sordid views can avarice injiame^ \ 
That such my faults, could I the list relate, 
As friends would pardon, foes must aggravate ; 
That still my verse a chosen sett can taste, 
Plain, but not lifeless ; blithe, but not unchaste.' 1 



OF THE 

LORD HIGH TREASURER AND HIS OFFICE, 

NOW EXECUTED BY 

LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY ^. 



The Lord High Treasurer is the third great officer of 
the Crown. He is appointed not only by His Majesty's 

a Wray was generally considered, among his friends, as penurious, 
and frequently bantered by them upon it. This line probably al- 
luded to it. His views were those of Junius, who similarly ex- 
presses them, though more at large. " What you say about the 
profits is very handsome : I like to deal with such men. As for 
myself, be assured that / am far above all pecuniary views, and no 
other person, I think, has any claim to share with you. Make the 
most of it, therefore, and let all your views in life be directed to a 
solid, however moderate independance : tuithout it no man can be 
happy, nor even honest" (Junius's Private Note, No. 59, March 5, 
1772.) 

b From Beatson's Political Index, 2 vols. Second Edit. 1788. 

H 2 



84 

delivering unto him a white staff, but also by letters 
patent. He is a lord by his office, and governeth the 
upper Court of Exchequer ; has the custody of the King's 
treasure, and of foreign and domestic records there de- 
posited. He has the appointment of all Commissioners 
and other officers employed in collecting the revenues of 
the Crown. He has the nomination of all escheators, 
and disposal of all places anywise relating to the revenue 
and of the kingdom, and power to let leases of the 
Crown lands. His place he holds during pleasure, and 
is accounted of great value as well as power. 

This great office is now executed by five persons, who 
are called Lords Commissioners for executing the office 
of Lord High Treasurer, viz. the First Lord of the 
Treasury has a salary of ^4,000 per annum, and the 
other four have £1,600 a year each. Under these are 
two joint secretaries, four chief clerks, two solicitors, and 
many other inferior officers. 

The office of Chancellor of the Exchequer is always 
held by one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, 
(except upon some very particular occasions, when the 
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench is appointed to 
act as such.) He is styled Chancellor and Under Trea- 
surer of the Exchequer : he has the custody of the Ex- 
chequer seal ; he has also the comptrolment of the rolls 
of the Lords of the Treasury, and sits in the Court of 
Exchequer above the Barons of Exchequer. He has 
many lucrative offices in the Court of Exchequer in his 

gift. 



LORDS COMMISSIONERS 

FOR EXECUTING THE OFFICE OF 

LORD HIGH TREASURER, 

FROM THE TIME OF WEAY'S APPOINTMENT AS DEPUTY 
TELLER, TO THE CLOSE OF JUNIUS's CORRESPONDENCE. 



December 25, 1744. 
Hon. H. Pelham (and Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Charles, Earl of Middlesex (afterwards D. of Dorset). 
Henry Fox, Esq. (afterwards Lord Holland). 
Hon. Richard Arundel. 
George Lyttelton, Esq. 

June, 1746. 
Hon. H. Pelham (and Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Charles, Earl of Middlesex. 
George Lyttelton, Esq. 
Hon. Henry Bilson Legge. 
John Campbell, Esq. 

June, 1747. 
Hon. H. Pelham (and Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
George Lyttelton, Esq. 
Hon. Henry Bilson Legge. 
John Campbell, Esq. 
Hon. G. Grenville. 

May, 1749. 
Hon. H. Pelham (and Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
George Lyttelton, Esq. 



86 

J. Campbell, Esq. 

Hon. G. Grenville. 

Hon. Henry Vane (afterwards Earl of Darlington). 

March 9, 1754. 
Sir Wm. Lee, Knt. (Ld. C. J. of the King's Bench, and 
Chancellor of the Exchequer). 

March 16, 1754. 
Thos. Holies Pelham (Duke of Newcastle, First Com- 
missioner). 

April 6, 1754. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
Henry, Earl of Darlington. 

Hon. H. B. Legge (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Thomas, Viscount Dupplin. 
Robert Nugent, Esq. 

November 22, 1755. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
Henry, Earl of Darlington. 
Sir Geo. Lyttelton, Bart. (Chancellor of the Exchequer), 

afterwards Lord Lyttelton. 
Thomas, Vise. Dupplin (afterwards Earl of Kinnoul). 
Robert Nugent, Esq. 

December 20, 1755. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
Sir Geo. Lyttelton, Bart. (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Robert Nugent, Esq. 
Percy Windham O'Brien, Esq. (afterwards Earl of 

Thomond). 
Henry Furnese, Esq. 

November 16, 1756. 
William, Duke of Devonshire. 
Hon. H. B. Legge (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 



87 

Robert Nugent, Esq. 

William, Viscount Duncannon (afterwards Earl of Bes- 

borough). 
Hon. James Grenville. 

April 9, 1757. 
William Murray, Lord Mansfield (Lord C. J. of the 
King's Bench, and Chancellor of the Exchequer). 

July 2, 1757. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
Hon. H. B. Legge (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Robert Nugent, Esq. 
William, Viscount Duncannon. 
Hon. James Grenville. 

June 2, 1759. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
Hon. H. B. Legge (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Robert Nugent, Esq. (afterwards Earl Nugent). 
Hon. James Grenville. 
Frederick North (Lord North). 

December 22, 1759. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
Hon. H. B. Legge (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
Hon. James Grenville. 
Frederick, Lord North. 
James Oswald, Esq. 

King George III. — March 12, 1761. 
T. H. Pelham (Duke of Newcastle). 
William, Viscount Barrington (Chanc. of the Exch.). 
Frederick, Lord North. 
James Oswald, Esq. 
Gilbert Elliot, Esq. 



88 

May 29, 1762. 

John, Earl of Bute. 

Sir Francis Dashwood, Bart. (Chanc. of the Exeh.) after- 
wards Lord Le Despencer. 

Frederick, Lord North. 

James Oswald, Esq. 

Sir John Turner, Bart. 

April 16, 1763. 

Hon. George Grenville (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 

Frederick, Lord North. 

Sir John Turner, Bart. 

Thomas Orby Hunter, Esq. 

James Harris, Esq. 

July 13, 1765. 

Charles, Marquis of Rockingham. 

William Dowdeswell, Esq. (Chanc. of the Exch.) 

Lord John Cavendish. 

Thomas Townshend, Esq. 

George Onslow, Esq. (afterwards Lord Cranley and Lord 
Onslow). 

Aug. 2, 1766. 

Augustus Henry, Duke of Grafton. 

Hon. Charles Townshend (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 

Thomas Townshend, Esq. (afterwards Lord Sydney). 

George Onslow, Esq. 

Pryse Campbell, Esq. 

Sept. 12, 1767. 

William, Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of the 
King's Bench, Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

Dec. 1,1767. 

Augustus Henry, Duke of Grafton. 

Frederick, Lord North (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 

George Onslow, Esq. 



89 

Pryse Campbell, Esq. 
Charles Jenkinson, Esq. 

Dec. 81, 1768. 
Augustus Henry, Duke of Grafton. 
Frederick, Lord North (Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
George Onslow, Esq. 
Charles Jenkinson, Esq. 
Jeremiah Dyson, Esq. 

Feb. 10, 1770 a . 
Fred. Lord North (and Chancellor of the Exchequer). 
George Onslow, Esq. 

Charles Jenkinson, Esq. (now Lord Hawkesbury). 
Jeremiah Dyson, Esq. 
Charles Townshend, Esq. 



THE COURT OR OFFICE 

OF 

THE RECEIPT 

OP 

HIS MAJESTY'S EXCHEQUER 5 . 



The Auditor of the 1 This is an office of great trust 
Receipt of the Ex- > and profit. He files the bills of 
chequer. ) the Tellers, by which they charge 

themselves with all the moneys received ; and, by war- 
rant from the Lord Treasurer, or the Commissioners of 
the Treasury, he draws all orders to be signed by him 
or them, for issuing forth all moneys, by virtue of Privy 

a From this time no new appointment till 1773. 

b See Bcatson's Political Index, in 2 vols. 2d edit. 1788. 



90 

Seals, which are recorded in the Clerk of the Pells' 
office, and entered and lodged in the Auditor's office. 
He also, by warrant of the Lord Treasurer, or the Com- 
missioners of the Treasury, makes debentures to such as 
have fees, annuities, or pensions, by letters patent from 
the King, out of the Exchequer, and directs them for 
payment to the Tellers. He daily receives the state of 
the account of each Teller, and weekly certifies the whole 
to the Lords of the Treasury. 

At Michaelmas and Lady-day he makes a Declaration. 
This is an abstract of all accounts and payments made 
in the preceding half year; one for the Lords of the 
Treasury, and the other for the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer. He keeps the Registers appointed for pay- 
ments in course, upon several branches of the King's 
revenue. He holds his office for life ; and for the dis- 
charge of these offices, he has a Chief Clerk, a Clerk of 
the Debentures, a Clerk of the Register and Issues, a 
Clerk of the Cash Book, and a Clerk for making out 
Exchequer Bills ; and in the offices for annuities under 
the Auditor are two Chief Clerks, and nine clerks under 
them. 

The Auditor at the time of Wray's appointment as 
Deputy Teller was Robert, Lord Walpole (afterwards 
Earl of Orford), who was succeeded in 17^1 by Henry, 
Earl of Lincoln, afterwards Duke of Newcastle, the 
holder of the office when Junius ceased to write. 

The Tellers of the \ These are four Tellers of the Ex- 
Exchequer, y chequer, each of whom has his De- 
puty, his First Clerk, and four other clerks. When 
they enter upon office, they must each of them give se- 
curity to the amount of i?20,000 for the faithful dis- 



91 

charge of their trust. Their office is to receive all 
money due to the King, and thereupon to throw down a 
bill through the pipe into the Tally Court, where it is 
received by the Auditor's clerk, who there attends to 
write the words of the bill upon a tally, and then delivers 
the same to be entered by the Clerk of the Pells, or his 
under clerk, who attends to enter it in his book. Then 
the tally is cloven by the two Deputy Chamberlains ; 
and while the senior deputy reads one part, the junior 
examines the other part with the two clerks. 

Tellers from 1745, when Wkay was appointed De- 
puty to the Hon. Philip Yoeke, to 177^ when 
Junius ceased writing. 

Those starred were Tellers in Junius's time. 

Earl of Macclesfield. 
*Hon. Thomas Townshend. 
*Hon. Ph. Yorke (afterwards Earl of Hardwicke). 

Horace Walpole, Esq. (afterwards Lord Walpole). 
1757. James, Earl Waldegrave, vice Lord Walpole. 

1763. *George Grenville, Esq. (afterwards Marquis of 

Buckingham), vice Lord Waldegrave. 

1764. ^Robert, Lord Henley (afterwards Earl of North- 

ington), vice Lord Macclesfield. 

The Clerk of the Pells is in the nature of a comp- 
troller. 

He is called the Clerk of the Pells from the Latin 
word pellis, a skin ; his office being to enter the Teller's 
bill in a parchment skin, and all receipts and payments 
for the King, for what cause, and by whomsoever. He 
has a Deputy ; a clerk for the intwitus, or incomes ; 



92 

and another for the exitus, or issues. He has also a 
Clerk of the Declarations, and a Clerk of the Patents. 

This office was held from 1760 to 1784 by the Right 
Hon. Sir Edward Walpole, K.B. 

Chamberlains of the > In their custody are many 
Exchequer. * ancient records, leagues, and 

treaties with foreign princes ; the standards of money, 
weights, and measures ; those ancient books called the 
Black Book of the Exchequer, and Doomsday Book. 
Under them are four Deputy Chamberlains, in whose 
office are preserved all counterfoils of the above tallies, 
so exactly arranged that they can be easily found, in 
order to be joined with their respective tallies; which 
being done, and proved true, they deliver it attested for 
a lawful tally to the Clerk of the Pipe, to be allowed in 
the great roll. 

Sir Simeon Stewart, Bart, and Sir John Miller, Bart, 
were Chamberlains in 1760 ; the latter was succeeded in 
1772 by Montagu Burgoyne, Esq. and the former in 
1779 by the Hon. Frederick North. 



THE END. 



G. Woodfall, Printer, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London. 






£020661 533 3 



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